A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 773 



who had obtained instruction in European schools. A number of 

 States had so-called forest commissions or forest commissioners, and 

 the beginnings of organized fire protection had come into existence 

 through the setting up of State fire wardens, with a greater or less 

 degree of authority; but these State officers, of varying designations, 

 were in the nature of makeshifts without pretense of any special 

 expertness qualifying them for then" positions. There was a very 

 considerable general interest hi forestry, but very little knowledge of 

 what it really meant, and almost no idea of how to proceed in order 

 to get it on its feet as a State activity. 



In the decade preceding the close of the century the most important 

 forward impulse received by the forestry movement came from the 

 effect on men's minds of the terrific forest fires of the period, particu- 

 larly in the Lake States, where the losses both in property and human 

 life were appalling. In the first decade of the twentieth century, on 

 the other hand, there was developing a better public understanding 

 of forestry and a wider and keener interest in obtaining its applica- 

 tion. The oldest professional school of forestry in the country, 

 Cornell, turned out its first graduate (a single one) in 1900, and the 

 second oldest, the Yale School of Forestry, its first graduating class 

 of eight men in 1902. Practically simultaneously with the creation 

 of means of educating a supply of young foresters, the Federal activi- 

 ties in forestry began to expand and attract public attention. The 

 preliminary stirrings which presaged the oncoming of the conserva- 

 tion movement were beginning to be felt. With the accession of 

 Theodore Roosevelt to the Presidency came the real opportunity for 

 a great burst of progress. The States were looking to Washington 

 for ideas and guidance, and under the influence of what was happening 

 at Washington, State forestry began to take shape in enduring and 

 useful forms. 



To this reliance upon outside leadership Pennsylvania was an 

 exception. Like New York, its forestry movement, while gaining 

 power from the stimulus of the general forestry movement, was 

 essentially indigenous. The principal credit for it belongs to one 

 man, Dr. J. T. Rothrock, who practically gave his life to it. Its 

 most outstanding accomplishment has already been pointed out. 



The States which turned to Washington for advice regarding the 

 form of organization which they should set up to take care of their 

 forestry interests received recommendations which embodied two 

 principles as fundamental: (1) That their laws should provide for a 

 technically trained State forester in charge of the work, and (2) that 

 his position and entire organization must be nonpolitical. To assure 

 an administration of the State forestry interests not dominated by 

 political considerations, the States were advised to make their fores- 

 try departments independent of any existing department, such as 

 departments of agriculture, land departments, and fish and game 

 departments, and to make the State forester responsible to a directive 

 board made up of representatives of organizations and institutions 

 within the State of a kind to promise a capable and disinterested 

 governing agency concerned solely with serving the public as well as 

 possible. 



An example is the board created by the Minnesota law of 1911. 

 Following disastrous forest fires in the previous year, Minnesota then 

 radically revised its forestry law. The chief executive officer was to 



