592 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



"The president of the United States may from time to time set apart and 

 reserve in any state or territory having public lands bearing forests, 

 any part of the public lands, wholly or in part covered with timber or 

 undergrowth whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations, 

 and the president shall by public proclamation declare the establishment 

 of such reservations and the limits thereof." 



Under this law, which was approved March 3, 1891, nearly 60 millions 

 of acres of land have been set aside. When these reserves were being 

 made it became evident that some system of protection and management 

 must be inaugurated. In 1896 Secretary Smith of the Department of In- 

 terior realized this necessity and requested the National Academy of 

 Sciences to investigate and report on a National Forest Policy for the for- 

 ests belonging to the United States. He especially desired that they be 

 managed in such a way as to exert the greatest influence on climate, soil, 

 and the conservation of water. The committee gave a preliminary report 

 in February, 1897. in which they recommended the creation of thirteen 

 additional reserves. The whole number were proclaimed by President 

 Cleveland. In May the committee submitted their complete report as Sen- 

 ate Document No. 10. A wide-spread discontent arose among cattle and 

 sheep men on account of the curtailing of their grazing area. They then 

 succeeded in getting a bill through Congress in June suspending all reser- 

 vation made that year till March, 1898. This bill provided our first system 

 of forest administration by setting aside $150,000 for the survey of the 

 reserved land. Congress now appropriated $300,000 yearly for the care of 

 the reserves. 



The forestry work is now conducted under three sections of the gov- 

 ernment, namely: Division R, and the Geological Survey of the Department 

 of Interior, and the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture. 

 It is probable that within a few years all the forestry work will come un- 

 der the supervision of the Bureau of Forestry. 



The government has set aside nearly twice as much land for Indian 

 Reservations, Military Reservations, reservoir sites, etc.. as it owns in 

 Forest Reserves. In 1898 there were about 159 million acres in reserves. 

 Eighty-three and one-half millions of these were Indian Reservations, near- 

 ly three and one-half millions in national parks, and about one million in 

 Military Reservations. The Indian Reservations are more or less in for- 

 ests. The national parks are mostly wooded and probably will soon be 

 managed under a forest system. The total reserved land in the United 

 States is about 8 per cent of the total land excluding Alaska. In 1898 more 

 than 30 per cent of the entire area was unreserved public land. Most of 

 this is in the west where there is estimated to be 125,000,000 acres of forest 

 in unreserved land. 



Almost all of the best timber land of the country has passed from the 

 government to private individuals. The private forests exceed in area 

 both the state and federal government reserves combined. The enormous 

 consumption of forest products has made rapid inroads upon the private 

 forest supply of timber. Recognizing that the treatment of private forests 

 usually tends to destroy rather than increase their productivity, the Di- 



