6 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



municipal acquisition, under general land-grant laws, parcels of other 

 Forests. Indeeed, it required the veto of the President to prevent 

 such stultifying legislation from being enacted. 



In utter contrast with these futile attempts to zveaken the National 

 Forest policy must be cited the legislation in opposite direction, which 

 has become known as the Weeks law, passed in 1911. This is, indeed, 

 a most remarkable extension of the Federal forest policy, and it is 

 of far-reaching import, not so much for what it has accomplished as 

 for what it implies as regards national policy. 



In its provision for cooperation with the individual States in the 

 matter of fire protection it recognizes the mutuality of interest between 

 the nation at large and its single members. In its provision for the 

 purchase of National Forests in the Appalachian and White Mountains, 

 it recognizes the inability of the single States to inaugurate effective 

 forest policies — a matter to which we will presently return. 



Such a proposition at the time when we first proposed the reserva- 

 tion of the public timberlands, which were already the nation's prop- 

 erty, would surely have led the proposer to a lunatic asylum. 



With such a success in reversing old established theories of Fed- 

 eral government and land policy, we may now go still another step and 

 suggest further cooperation with the States in building out State 

 forest policies. 



STATE FOREST POLICY 



The progress of developing forest policies in the individual States 

 has by no means been so phenomenal. 



Although almost all States can be reported as recognizing in some 

 way the need of a forest policy, the practical expression given to this 

 need has been feeble in most States. 



The methods of expressing interest have been more or less the same 

 in all States; namely, first, the creation of commissions of inquiry, 

 mostly instituted in the eighties and nineties, and some of them as early 

 as 1867 and 1876 (Wisconsin and Minnesota). 



Sooner or later these commissions of inquiry, having made their 

 reports, were followed by more permanent commissions with advisory 

 and educational, and sometimes administrative, functions. 



Finally, as professional men became available, the appointment of 

 State foresters under various departmental assignments brought in 

 technical assistance. 



At present 30 States have acknowledged public interest in their 



