234 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



against the utilization of resources, but the development of resources 

 through wisely regulated use. For passive prohibitions were substi- 

 tuted constructive activities. 



USE OF NATIONAL FOREST RESOURCES. 



The era of mere reservation culminated when President Cleveland, 

 at the close of his administration, more than doubled in a day the total 

 area covered by withdrawals under the act of March 3, 1891. That 

 act empowered the President to set apart " public lands wholly or 

 in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial 

 value or not, as public reservations." With the Cleveland additions 

 the forest reserves totaled, on the 4th of March, 1897, not quite 

 40,000,000 acres. 



For use of these forests no provision whatever had been made. 

 The land was theoretically closed to all human occupation or enjoy- 

 ment. In consequence an outburst of indignant protest from the 

 West demanded that the newly created reserves should be restored 

 to the public domain. Instead, the proclamations were suspended 

 for a year and the act of June 4, 1897, passed. By authorizing regu- 

 lated use of all national forest resources this act laid one of the two 

 main foundations on which rests the present system of administering 

 the forests. The second and no less necessary foundation was pro- 

 vided by the work inaugurated in this department one year later. 



LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IN 189 7. 



It is difficult to realize in 1912 how completely lacking in 1897 was 

 the knowledge necessary for the application of forestry in the United 

 States. Almost no field studies of consequence had ever been made. 

 The Division of Forestry, as it existed in my department when I took 

 office, employed all told 13 persons, of whom 5 were clerks and 1 a 

 messenger. It was a bureau of information and advice merely. It 

 had no field equipment. It was supported by an annual appropria- 

 tion of $28,520. How its work was regarded may be judged by the 

 fact that Congress, in making this appropriation for the year 1899, 

 attached a provision that the Secretary of Agriculture should make 

 at the beginning of the following session a special and detailed report 

 " upon the forestr}^ investigations and work of the Department of 

 Agriculture, shoAving the results obtained and the practical utility 

 of the investigations." 



SUBSEQUENT POLICY. 



Early in the fiscal year 1913 the Forest Service employed a total 

 of 4,097 persons. Its appropriation for the current year is over 

 $5,000,000. Its field of work is the entire United States. Its admin- 

 istrative and protective duties alone (including cooperation with 



