74 THE SCHOOL BOOK OF FORESTRY 



Rules and regulations concerning the cutting 

 of lumber and the misuse of forests were sug- 

 gested as early as the seventeenth century. Ply- 

 mouth Colony in 1626 passed an ordinance 

 prohibiting the cutting of timber from the Col- 

 ony lands without official consent. This is said 

 to be the first conservation law passed in America. 

 William Penn was one of the early champions 

 of the " Woodman, spare that tree" slogan. He 

 ordered his colonists to leave one acre of forest 

 for every five acres of land that were cleared. 



In 1799 Congress set aside $200,000 for the 

 purchase of a small forest reserve to be used as 

 a supply source of ship timbers for the Navy. 

 About twenty-five years later, it gave the Presi- 

 dent the power to call upon the Army and Navy 

 whenever necessary to protect the live oak and 

 red cedar timber so selected in Florida. In 1827, 

 the Government started its first work in forestry. 

 It was an attempt to raise live oak in the South- 

 ern States to provide ship timbers for the Navy. 

 Forty years later, the Wisconsin State Legis- 

 lature began to investigate the destruction of the 

 forests of that state in order to protect them and 

 prolong their life. Michigan and Maine, in turn, 

 followed suit. These were some of the first steps 



