4 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



namely, in the development of forest policies, Federal, State and munic- 

 ipal; in the development of private forestry; in the professional and 

 public educational development ; the development in scientific direction, 

 and finally in forestry practice, the actual application of knowledge in 

 the management of forests. 



NATIONAL FOREST POLICY 



As far as the development of a Federal forest policy is concerned, 

 the outlook at the beginning of the period was almost hopeless: the 

 idea of government ownership, the only possible policy, was repugnant 

 to the general land policy of the United States, which had in view the 

 disposal of public lands to settlers and other private hands. 



Nevertheless, the commitment of the Federal government to set 

 aside forest reservations for permanent government ownership was 

 secured within the short space of five years, when in 1891 by a regular 

 coup d'etat the well-known clause empowering the President to set 

 aside forest reservations was passed as a rider to a bill repealing the 

 timber culture law. 



I desire here to place on record, in view of an attempt by a certain 

 ex-Senator to claim the fatherhood of this clause, that according to 

 my very positive recollection the honor of having secured the insertion 

 and passage of this clause into law belongs to the then Secretary of the 

 Interior, John W. Noble, and to him alone, except so far as we had a 

 hand in educating him to the proper attitude. 



Within the next three years after the enactment of that clause, some 

 18 million acres of the public timber domain were withdrawn from 

 the possibility of private entry. Another block of similar size was 

 added in 1897 ; and these reservations by 1908 had been increased to 

 some 175 million acres. The policy of maintaining National Forests 

 was then finally and definitely established within less than 20 years. 



This was not done without considerable opposition, especially on 

 the part of Western Representatives and Senators. Indeed, when in 

 1897 President Cleveland celebrated Washington's birthday by creating 

 at one stroke some 20 million acres of reserves, it was with great 

 difficulty that the indictment of the President and the abolition of the 

 entire reservation policy was prevented. 



Meanwhile, an administration for these forests, especially one based 

 on forestry principles, was more difficult to attain, partly, I take it, 

 because the idea of forest management was novel and professional 

 foresters were not in existence. Ten years of attempts to secure 



