480 JOURNAL OF i^ORESTRY 



pected in the future, it is perfectly apparent that the completion of any 

 reasonable program of acquiring land for pubHc uses will require many 

 years. 



While it is urgent that the Federal Government and the States should 

 acquire public forests and take proper care of them — that is, protect 

 them from fire, cut them conservatively, reforest them, and so on — the 

 obligation goes much farther. They must, at the same time, recognize 

 their responsibility to encourage the proper care of private forests, the 

 area of which, even after the program of acquisition has been com- 

 pleted, will at least equal the area of public forests. The public has 

 scarcely any greater obligation with respect to forestry than that of 

 aiding in the protection of private forests from fire. Nor is there any 

 forest activity in which co-operation between Government and State 

 will bring quicker and better results. Fire protection is fundamental. 

 It is the chief means of preserving timber growth in order that for- 

 estry may be practiced and a continuous supply of timber be main- 

 tained. Adequate fire protection will undoubtedly solve a large part 

 of our forest problem. It will save timber now standing, and it will 

 promote natural regeneration on most cut-over lands after lumbering. 



Though in a very inadequate way financially, a beginning has already 

 been made in co-operative fire protection by the Government and 

 States. Enough has been accompHshed to demonstrate the practical 

 value of the co-operation, and, furthermore, a precedent for Federal 

 and State co-operative effort in forestry has been established by the 

 specific terms of a Federal law. This law is the well-known Weeks 

 Act, which passed Congress in March, 1911. It provided for two 

 things — the acquisition of lands for National Forest purposes and co- 

 operation with the States in protection from forest fires. The latter 

 provision was an after-thought, an experiment, the results of which 

 have justified it as a permanent policy of the Government. 



The Federal appropriation for co-operative fire protection for the 

 current year is $100,000. The law requires that the protection must 

 be limited to private and State lands on the forested watersheds of 

 navigable streams ; that a State must have provided by law for a 

 system of forest fire protection, and that the Federal expenditure in 

 any State shall not exceed in any year the expenditure made by the 

 State. Co-operation began in 1911 with eleven States, in which ap- 

 proximately seven million acres of forest land received protection ; 

 200 Federal patrolmen were employed ; and the Federal expenditure 



