the; old order changes 209 



Of the specific accomplishments which have signalized Colonel 

 Graves' administration it is impossible to attempt here even a sum- 

 mary. Some of them are sufficiently recent to be fresh in the minds 

 of all who read the Journal — the handling of the Forest Service 

 during the war, for example. The organization was maintained intact, 

 the essential economic functions of the National Forests performed, 

 and the investigative activities greatly expanded along lines which con- 

 tributed important results to the war effort of the country; while a 

 large part of the personnel was released for military service, the for- 

 estry operations of the American Army in France were organized, 

 and co-operation was given the War Department in recruiting and 

 officering the Forest Engineer Regiments. After the war, the readjust- 

 ment to the new situation and conditions was accomplished without 

 essential loss. Again, some of the achievements started earlier serve 

 as landmarks of progress and are so outstanding that they rise at once 

 to mind. Such, for example, was the carrying through of the land 

 classification of the National Forests — a task inaugurated, in a way, 

 before Colonel Graves took office, through the setting on foot of a 

 general boundary examination, but one which expanded under his 

 direction into a fundamental undertaking of much broader scope, 

 which has settled once for all the vexed problem of agricultural lands 

 within the National Forests, and stabilized the whole Forest enterprise 

 by determining what classes of lands should be permanently retained 

 and administered for Forest purposes. Such, again, have been the 

 development of the land-purchase policy under the Weeks law, and 

 its application in the building up of the Eastern Forests ; the develop- 

 ment of the land-exchange policy ; and the working out of co-operative 

 fire protection with the States. Still again, the policy of road-building 

 for the development of National Forest resources and the benefit of 

 local communities was his original conception, and owes its realiza- 

 tion to his leadership. 



Transcending all these in importance, however, is the great central 

 achievement of putting on a sound and enduring basis the whole system 

 of National Forest administration. A tentative experiment and glo- 

 rious hope has been converted into an accepted and lasting reality. 

 The usefulness of the Forests to the public, and their use by the public, 

 have been vastly increased ; the mechanism of administration has been 

 immensely bettered ; the technical methods of management have been 

 put on a much more scientific basis ; and the approbation of the public 



