THE SITUATION^ 

 Bv Professor B. E. Fi;rno\v. 



It is precisely 30 years — a "whole generation — since the speaker 

 took charge of the forestry work of the Federal government, at that 

 titme the only agency of this kind, in a little garret room with two 

 clerks and $10,000 appropriation, and as he was the first professional 

 forester in that position, that date, 1886, may be claimed to be the be- 

 ginning of at least professional consideration of the forestry problems 

 in the United States. 



Looking back over such a period of professional endeavor, the 

 thought naturally suggests itself to review before this Society, the 

 representative of the profession, what has been accomplished in that 

 time in forestry as a policy, a science, and an art. 



There are pessimists and optimists in the world, those that see the 

 rosy and those that see the g*loomy side of things. Neither the cheerful 

 optimist, although he contributes to the fund of happiness in the world, 

 nor the morose pessimist who chills the enthusiasm of the reformer, 

 advance the world very much by their extravagant praise or criticism. 

 Fifty per cent of either in mixture will make a meliorist, will make us 

 realize what is wrong with the world and suggest the remedy. 



It is in the role of the meliorist that I propose to deal with my 

 subject. 



At the outset we may claim that while in some directions much is 

 still backward, we can be quite proud of what has been accomplished 

 in a comparatively short time. If, for instance, we compare our own 

 efforts with those of the British in India who had a start of 20 years 

 ahead of us, and with those of other Dominions of the British Empire, 

 as Canada, for example, we do not need to feel ashamed of our 

 accomplishment. 



The mere statement that appropriations for forestry work have 

 passed beyond the five million dollar mark for the Federal government, 

 to which several million dollars may be added for State government 

 agencies, gives an idea of growth. 



There are five directions in which the progress should be traced. 



^Address of the retiring President before the Society of American Foresters. 

 December 29, 1916. 



