STATE FOREST POLICY IN A.MERIC/*. 4I 



offering prizes, bounties, or tax rebates to private owners for 

 tree-planting. The results of the latter policy were small, and 

 it has been abandoned in nearly all cases. The reports of the 

 early state commissions, however, were of considerable educa- 

 tional value. Most of the men serving on these commissions 

 did so without compensation, and gave their best efforts to 

 bring to the attention of the people the importance of public 

 forestry measures. We can hardly give too much credit to the 

 pioneers in the movement. Many of their early reports are 

 excellent state papers forecasting development that is just now 

 beginning to be realised. Based on such reports a considerable 

 amount of educational work was done by these state com- 

 missions, and by societies and associations formed for the 

 purpose. In this stage of progress the forestry activities of 

 many states may be said to have " hung fire " for a decade or 

 more. The public interest in forestry, however, was growing, 

 and gradually began to find expression in various laws for the 

 protection of woodlands against fire, encouraging the planting 

 of waste areas, the preservation of specific forest tracts and 

 areas of attractive natural scenery, and finally for the centring 

 of responsibility for such activities upon the State Govern- 

 ment. 



The first state forestry bureaux were subordinate to other 

 departments of longer standing. In regions where there are 

 large mining interests, forestry became a branch of the State 

 Geologist's office. In others it was placed under the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and in all too many instances it was 

 handled by politicians and placed where it could best serve their 

 ends. During recent years, as its importance has become better 

 realised, forestry work in many states has been removed from 

 other bureaux and organised as a separate department. A 

 number of states have established forestry departments in con- 

 nection with the Agricultural Experiment Stations. Depart- 

 ments so established have generally proved successful, and this 

 is likely to be followed in the large agricultural states where 

 forestry is largely a problem of managing small farm woodlots. 

 The activities of such a forestry department, being largely 

 educational, can be carried on very efficiently in co-operation 

 with general experimental and educational work in agriculture. 

 The tendency, however, in states where large areas of non- 

 agricultural land exist, is to centre all forestry work in a separate 



