The History of Forestry in America 



white pine of New England had been 

 cut; that in New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania was going fast. Pine production 

 in the Lake States was approaching its 

 peak. It was still the favored species for 

 lumber, for the sawmill output of white 

 pine exceeded that of all other species 

 combined. 



At the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century, concern was felt over local 

 shortages of firewood and other timber 

 near the cities and over the supply of 

 ship timbers. In 1791 the Philadelphia 

 Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 

 ture offered medals for planting locust 

 for posts and treenails. The Massachu- 

 setts Society offered premiums for 

 growing trees, in 1804. The New York 

 Society named a committee to study 

 the "best mode of preserving and in- 

 creasing the growth of timber." That 

 or another committee, in a report in 

 1795, recommended that inferior agri- 

 cultural land be devoted to trees. In 

 1817 the Massachusetts Legislature 

 asked its State Department of Agricul- 

 ture to encourage the growing of oaks 

 for ship timbers; in 1837 it authorized 

 a survey of forest conditions in the 

 State, with the idea that the findings 

 might induce landowners to consider 

 the importance of "continuing, im- 

 proving, and enlarging the forests of 

 the State." 



In 1 799, the Congress, heeding John 

 Jay's warning that ship timbers and 

 masts would become scarce unless steps 

 were taken to prevent waste and pre- 

 serve the existing supplies, authorized 

 President Adams to spend $200,000 to 

 buy reserves of live oak on the South 

 Carolina and Georgia coasts. That was 

 probably the first appropriation by the 

 Federal Government for acquisition of 

 timberland. 



It was followed several years later 

 by acts authorizing the President to 

 reserve public lands bearing live oak 

 and cedar in Florida, Alabama, and 

 Louisiana; to purchase similar lands; 

 to conduct experiments in the planting 

 and cultivation of live oak (probably 

 the first Federal forestry research) ; 

 and to take appropriate measures to 



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prevent depredations and preserve live 

 oak stands. Besides the small areas 

 bought in Georgia, some 244,000 acres 

 was reserved in the Gulf States. Mean- 

 while, stealing of timber from the 

 reservations and other public lands 

 went on unchecked, and the Govern- 

 ment continued to sell oak timberland 

 at $1.25 an acre and buy stolen oak 

 timber for $1.50 a cubic foot. The 

 Louisiana reservations were canceled 

 in 1888. 



In 1831 Congress prohibited cutting 

 live oak and other trees on naval reser- 

 vations or any other lands belonging 

 to the United States. Although sel- 

 dom enforced, the act remained for 

 almost 60 years the basic and only law 

 aimed at protecting the timber on Gov- 

 ernment lands. The Commissioner of 

 the General Land Office attempted to 

 enforce the law in 1851, but was dis- 

 missed for doing so. Carl Schurz tried 

 again when he was Secretary of the 

 Interior, but was stopped by Congress 

 in 1880. 



After the Civil War, citizens began 

 to take more interest in forests ; earlier 

 they generally were indifferent to them. 

 The heavy requirements for wood dur- 

 ing the war and the extensive destruc- 

 tion in some areas by military opera- 

 tions, the rapid pace of lumbering in 

 the Lake States and the widespread de- 

 struction by forest fires, the growing 

 realization of the relation of forests to 

 stream flow and water supplies all 

 caused people to think about future 

 timber supplies and the importance of 

 forest cover. 



A paper by the Reverend Frederick 

 Starr, in the report of the Department 

 of Agriculture for 1865, is said to have 

 had great influence on the forestry 

 movement. He predicted a timber fam- 

 ine within 30 years and advocated the 

 immediate undertaking of carefully 

 planned research on how to manage 

 forests and how to establish planta- 

 tions. The research, he maintained, 

 should be done by a Government-en- 

 dowed private corporation in order to 

 avoid the evils of the spoils system, 

 frequent changes in personnel, and 



