14 THE USE BOOK. 



a- 



ness fthe vast public and private losses through 

 essary jorest firgs ;-^the_mcreasing use of lumber per 

 capita by arapidly increasing population ;**the decease 

 in the summer flow of streams just as they become indis- 

 *pensable to manuTacture^oF irrTgation ; andjgt^serious 

 ^ecrease"liijEn^carrymg ^capa^t^of^he sumin^range. 

 It can not be doubted that, as President Roosevelt has 

 said, " the forest problem is in many ways the most vital 

 internal problem of the United States." 



As early as 1799, and again in 1817, Congress pro- 

 vided for the purchase of timber lands ^to supply the 

 needs of the Navy. Other acts from time to time 

 made similar provisions for setting apart forest land 

 for specific purposes, but the first attempt to secure a 

 comprehensive administration of the forests on the pub- 

 tic^domam^was, in .1811 . by a bill introduced in the 

 Forty-second Congress., wjiich failed_of passage. 



In 1876, $2J}00 ,was appropriated to employ a com- 

 petent man to investigate timber conditions in the 

 United States, and on June 30, 1886, an act was ap- 

 proved creating a Dj.vigion_of Forestry in thp, Impart - 

 ment oT^AgrTcuIturel OnJuIy J7_19Q1, this division 

 became the Bureau _o.FrLr^slrT (now tKe Forest Serv- 

 ice, since the act of March 3, 1905), employing prac- 

 tically all the trained foresters in the United States, 

 and engaged in almost every branch of forest work in 

 every State and Territory except the actual adminis- 

 tration of the Government forest lands, which re- 

 mained in the Department of the Interior. 



In the meantime, with the increasing realization that 

 the Nation's timber supply must be protected, and with 



