WHAT IS FORESTRY? 5 



priated money for the purchase and preservation of tim- 

 ber for the use of the Navy. Under this and subsequent 

 acts land suitable for the growing of live oak was pur- 

 chased, acorns were sown and forest conservation for 

 naval purposes only had a short inning. 



Following the Civil War the exploitation of the West 

 opened up virgin fields and lumber consumption in- 

 creased tremendously with only an occasional thought of 

 the future of our forest resources. During the decade 

 from 1865 to 1875 several important reports and 

 opinions were rendered by prominent Americans. Pro- 

 fessor F. W. Brewer in 1870 attempted to take stock 

 of our forest resources and as a result of his efforts and 

 those of his predecessors the Committee on Forestry of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science suggested to Congress the appointment of a 

 commission of forestry to submit a report on the re- 

 sources in and methods of preserving our forests. In 

 1876 Dr. Franklin B. Hough was appointed forest agent 

 in the Federal Department of Agriculture. 



Owing to the lack of interest and financial support 

 little apparent progress could be made although a great 

 deal of research was done and valuable information was 

 spread abroad. In reality a splendid foundation was 

 laid and much of the later work of the 'Forest Service 

 proceeded along lines marked out by the early officials. 



At that time most of the Western States contained 

 large areas of land owned by the Government called the 

 public domain. In 1891 Congress passed a law permit- 

 ting the president to set aside from the public domain 

 land to be used as forest reservations. President Harri- 

 son set aside the first reserves, and when his term of 

 office was finished he had created public reservations 

 to the extent of 13,000,000 acres. President Cleveland 



