REVIEWS 



United States Forest Policy. By Dr. John Ise, Yale University 

 Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 1920. Pp. 395. 



Dr. Ise has given a real and enduring service to American forestry 

 in his recent publication, "The United States Forest Policy." The 

 history of the United States is fundamentally a history of rapid ex- 

 ploitation of immensely valuable natural resources. The exploitation 

 of these resources has had not a little to do with American character 

 and with American political and social institutions as well as with 

 economic development. Our present wealth and "place in the sun" 

 are primarily due to the possession of these great natural resources of 

 which the forest is one of the most important and basic. The question 

 of its conservation through wise use is, therefore, one of the most im- 

 portant questions before the American people. This question is even 

 of far greater importance at this time than heretofore because most of 

 us now see for the first time the end of wood supplies from our virgin 

 stands at no distant future. 



The aim of the author has been to throw light upon the great and 

 pressing need for forest conservation. He does this by a careful and 

 painstaking analysis of our forest policy and its historical development. 

 The work appears to be done with reservation and accuracy and in 

 the reviewer's opinion will prove a most valuable reference for the 

 student and layman whenever facts and data relating to the laws and 

 regulations under which forestry in this country has developed, are 

 needed. The vast assemblage of facts relating to national and state 

 forest laws, unsuccessful and successful attempts at constructive forest 

 legislation and relating to forest associations and other organizations 

 having directly or indirectly influenced our forest policy, is readily 

 available through an excellent table of contents and the index which 

 closes the volume. 



Dr. Ise has approached his task as an economist and historian and 

 without personal bias. He has recorded things as they have been and 

 as they are, and he has left it to his readers to form their own judg- 

 ments whether our forest policy has always moved forward along a 

 path leading toward adequate future timber supplies and whether it is 

 now a policy that the American public can look to with confidence. 

 From the standpoint of historical development of our present policy 

 the book leaves little to be desired. 



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