THIRD ANNUAL ¥EAR BOOK — PART X. 589 



THE PROGRESS OF FORESTRY AND THE WORK OF THE BUREAU 



IN IOWA. 



Wm. H. Mast of the Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. 

 Many years before the woodsman had begun work in America's great 

 timber area forestry in Germany had become a well known and diligently 

 studied science. This thrifty people had learned the value of wood and 

 had measured the available supply. Their waste lands had already been 

 covered with forests and were yielding good returns. The wood crop re- 

 ceived great care. That it was a thing of concern both for the present 

 and the future could not be overlooked. The Germans had gained much 

 knowledge by experience. They had solved and were still solving many 

 important problems and their comprehension of forestry principles placed 

 them foremost in this science, which position they still rightfully hold. 

 We have much to learn from them and a great deal to find out for our- 

 selves, though they may have solved the problems correctly, we realize at 

 once that their results cannot always be accepted by us, because Ameri- 

 can conditions are vastly different from European. The size of our country, 

 the distance lumber is transported, the kind and quality of material de- 

 manded, all differ from that of Germany. These and many other things 

 make their methods unpractical for our use. 



In this country the timber was once considered worse than worthless 

 because it covered good ground and its removal meant much hard work. 

 It was formerly thought that the supply was too great to be exhausted. We 

 have only now begun to realize the necessity of reserving a wood supply 

 for future generations, and awakening from our stupor we are brought 

 face to face with immense problems which must be solved without delay. 

 For a great many years our forefathers thought only of ridding them- 

 selves of the timber which cumbered their land. But there began to 

 appear such men as William Penn, who was thoughtful for the future, and 

 thus the necessity of forest conservation became recognized. Public 

 opinion was gradually changed and laws for regulating and prohibiting 

 the cutting of timber were made. Among the earliest of these we note that 

 in 1640 certain regulations as to the cutting of oak were established in 

 Exter, New Hampshire. In 1662 Wm. Penn in his ordinance regulating the 

 sale of land in Pennsylvania demanded that for every five acres cleared 

 one should be reserved in timber growth. About fifty years after this 

 the Provincial Assembly of New Hampshire prohibited the cutting of tim- 

 ber suitable for ship masts from ungranted lands, under a penalty of one 

 hundred pounds (£100). At this early date New Hampshire had a sur- 

 veyor general of forests who received his commission from the English 

 crown. 



Between the years 1785 and 1805 two French botanists, Andre Michaux 

 and Andre Francois Michaux, in their study of American trees, did a great 

 deal to enlist public sentiment in the belief of the necessity of rational 

 treatment of our forest resources. During this time a New York society 

 published a report on the "Best Method of Preserving and Increasing 



