40 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



economic conditions and the demand for lumber in the different 

 sections make it possible. Besides the practice of forestry, the 

 other resources of the national forests are being developed. 

 These include fish and game, hotel sites, roads, trails, and 

 other recreational features, grazing, water-power, municipal 

 water supplies, etc. The Federal Forest Service, in addition to 

 managing the national forests, co-operates with the forestry 

 departments of the several states in fire-protection and in various 

 educational projects for the stimulation of private forestry. The 

 general plan of such co-operative projects is for the officers of 

 the Forest Service to outline the general policy, leaving the 

 administrative details to the state officers. The National 

 Government then usually matches dollar for dollar the amount 

 which the State Government appropriates for the purpose. This 

 co-operative feature has increased markedly the forestry work 

 in the states. The Forest Service is also engaged in the 

 purchase of forest land for the nation at the head-waters of 

 navigable rivers in the eastern states. The efficient public work 

 rendered by the Forest Service is due largely to its freedom from 

 partisan political control, and consequent continuity of manage- 

 ment in the hands of trained men. Prior to the organisation 

 of the Forest Service and the establishment of the wild public 

 lands in administrative units known as national forests, there 

 was a great deal of political abuse and fraud connected with 

 the management of the public domain, and much valuable 

 public timber passed into private hands with little or no recom- 

 pense. Such abuses have now been stopped. Orderly forest 

 administration and sound economic development are progress- 

 ing. 



The forest problems of the different states, especially the 

 group of north-eastern states, bear a closer analogy to those of 

 Scotland than do the problems confronting the National 

 Government. The forest policies of the several states are now 

 in process of rapid extension and development. Beginnings 

 were made thirty or forty years ago, but the greatest progress 

 has been made within the past decade. In the eastern states, 

 the first public recognition of forestry as a function of State 

 Government took the form of appointing commissions to in- 

 vestigate the forest resources of states and report with recom- 

 mendations to the legislatures. In the western states, particularly 

 in the prairie region, the first state activities in forestry were in 



