194 Forestry Quarterly 



Forest Reserves under the Land Office 



When Professor Fernow left the employment of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in 1898, there was no administrative organi- 

 zation for the existing reservations. In his own words : 



"There was no organization at all, but the forest reservations 

 were under the General Land Office like all other public timber 

 lands. In 1898, legislation was passed handing over the survey 

 of forest reservations to the Geological Survey and a rider was 

 hung onto the bill to charge the General Land Office with the 

 administration of these forest reservations . . . Later . . . 

 Professor Roth was called into the General Land Office to or- 

 ganize this service." 



The writer secured from Professor Roth a great deal of data 

 in connection with the early Land Office administration, both 

 historically and professionally of wide interest. Professor Roth 

 took charge of Division R in the General Land Office in 1901. 

 When he took charge, the Secretary of the Interior approved 

 grazing permits and all sales of timber, no matter how small, and 

 made all appointments. The Commissioner of the General Land 

 Office signed every letter, and other correspondence was for- 

 bidden. The Chief of Division R merely initialed all letters and 

 directed the office and field force from Washington. The field 

 work was in charge of a general inspector who was supposed 

 to be the eye of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. 

 The General Inspector at that time was closely allied to Dinger 

 Hermann (then Commissioner of the General Land Office) and 

 kept him informed politically, but did not engage in professional 

 forestry. There were in addition, superintendents of forest re- 

 serves. Originally, it was intended to have one for each state, but, 

 of course, the number of forest reserves organized at that time, 

 did not justify this number: California had two, Oregon, Wash- 

 ington, Idaho, and Montana, one each. There was but one super- 

 intendent for Wyoming and South Dakota, for Colorado and 

 Utah, and for New Mexico and Arizona. These superintendents 

 acted as inspectors, and since they had no real administrative 

 powers, papers had to be forwarded to Washington, thus causing 

 much delay. When Professor Roth took charge, he curtailed the 

 powers of inspectors to that of mere inspection. These inspectors 

 were originally political appointees, had little or no power for 



