XXVI INTRODUCTION 



the management of their cuttings with an outlook for a second 

 crop. But little systematic effort was made to prevent forest 

 fires. Aside from the passage of a few fire laws, but few states 

 had attempted any forestry legislation or acquired land for state 

 forests. 



The recent change in public sentiment is marked. The United 

 States is now making progress in improving forest conditions. 

 The individual, the state, and the nation are working together 

 better than ever before in an effort to attain the greatest possible 

 use of our forest resources for all time. 



Since 1898, the National Forests have been established and, 

 for the most part, placed under management. In March, 1915, 

 they embraced a net area of more than 163 million acres exclusive 

 of the purchases under the Weeks law. This vast acreage is in- 

 cluded in 162 National Forests 1 (Fig. 2). Taking the country 

 as a whole, these forests are very unequally distributed, being 

 almost wholly in the western half of the country. 



Within the past fifteen years state forestry has entered upon a 

 period of progress hitherto unknown. Already fourteen states 

 have 3,674,872 acres in state forests. Although the idea of ac- 

 quiring land for state forests is comparatively new in American 

 forestry, the time is not far distant when many, if not all, of the 

 states east of the Great Plains will have state forests. Present 

 economic conditions demand it. Large areas of pine barrens and 

 other lands unfit for agriculture from which the timber has been 

 cut must ultimately be taken over by the states. 2 



Serious attention has been given to communal forests in the 

 United States only within the past five years. The ownership 

 of forests by cities and villages has proved effective for many 

 years in forest conservation in Europe. Although available data 

 on the communal ownership of forests in this country is very 

 fragmentary, recent investigations by the author show that from 

 200,000 to 300,000 acres are so owned in the states east of the 

 Mississippi River. The great advantages of such ownership are 

 beginning to be appreciated by the public and we can look for- 

 ward with confidence to a rapid and constant increase in area. 

 Heretofore communal forests have been acquired primarily for 



1 National Forest areas. (U. S. Forest Service. March 31, 1915.) 



2 Tourney, J. W.: Who should own the forests? (Yale Review, vol. Ill, 

 pp. 145-156. 1913.) 



