4 FORESTRY ALMANAC 



THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE 



In the United States Forest Service the Government has centred 

 virtually all of its national forestry activities. Headed by " The 

 Forester," under the general supervision of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, this bureau has the responsibility of administering the 

 National Forests. It conducts research into timber production and 

 utilization. It regulates grazing in the National Forest areas. It 

 cooperates with the states in forestry work ; examines and classi- 

 fies lands for their forest value ; carries on recreational work within 

 the national timber lands ; performs engineering functions in connec- 

 tion with water power resources, highways and surveys in the 

 National Forests. The activities of the Forest Service are far flung, 

 and through close contact both with all branches of the wide field of 

 forest practice and wood use and with the public, the bureau moulds 

 the forestry progress of the country. 



HISTORY OF FEDERAL FOREST WORK 



Forty-eight years ago, in 1876, a special agent was appointed 

 by the Department of Agriculture to study the forestry conditions 

 in the United States as they then existed. This action was a reflec- 

 tion of the gradually awakening recognition of the need of a 

 forestry movement. 



Despite the abounding forest that had to be cleared away to allow 

 agricultural development, the seed of conservation was sown even in 

 colonial days. William Penn's requirement that one acre of forest 

 be left for every five cleared, and Connecticut's ordinance that timber 

 should not be taken out of the township, on the ground that it would 

 be prejudicial to the public welfare, were early attempts to check 

 prodigal use of this resource. To insure national defense, Congress 

 appropriated $200,000 in 1799 to buy a forest reserve containing tim- 

 ber for ships, and in 1827 an attempt was made to grow live oak for 

 this purpose. Several states began to look to their timber assets, and 

 in 1873 Congress passed the Timber Culture Act. Ineffective though 

 it was the law sought to encourage f orestation by allowing a patent 

 of 1 60 acres of the public domain to any settler planting and keeping 

 up forty acres of timber in treeless sections. 



