704 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



general corruption in the Government. 

 That, more than likely, was the start 

 of the movement for better forest 

 management. 



What may have been the first State 

 commission appointed to inquire into 

 the forest situation and recommend a 

 forestry policy for the State was set up 

 at the request of the Wisconsin Legis- 

 lature in 1867. The resulting report, 

 by I. A. Lapham, failed to emphasize 

 the need for sustained-yield manage- 

 ment of the existing forests and over- 

 stressed the need for planting, but 

 demonstrated clearly the relation of 

 forests to stream flow. No action was 

 taken on the report. 



Maine appointed a commission on 

 forestry policy in 1869, but the result 

 was some relatively unimportant laws. 



A New York commission set up in 

 1872 investigated the question of pre- 

 serving the Adirondack forest for its 

 effect on the Hudson and other rivers 

 and the Erie Canal. No action was 

 taken at that time. 



From 1868 on, tree planting caught 

 the public attention and interest. A 

 number of States enacted laws to en- 

 courage planting by offering bounties 

 or by granting tax reductions or exemp- 

 tion. Arbor Day was first celebrated in 

 Nebraska in 1872, at the instigation 

 of J. Sterling Morton, later Secretary 

 of Agriculture. Several railroad com- 

 panies planted trees for ties and 

 timber, mostly in the Great Plains. 



The Timber Culture Act, passed 

 by Congress in 1873, offered land free 

 to settlers who would plant trees on 40 

 (later reduced to 10) acres of each 

 160-acre claim. 



Opinions differ as to the efficacy of 

 the measures. One estimate is that 2 

 million acres was planted under the 

 act of 1873. Others report that most 

 of those plantations were neglected 

 and died, so that perhaps not more 

 than 50,000 acres could be considered 

 successful. Most of the State laws are 

 reported to have accomplished little, 

 though Governor Morton told the 

 American Forestry Congress in 1885 

 that Nebraska had more than 700,000 



acres of planted trees. B. E. Fernow, in 

 his History of Forestry, suggested that 

 Arbor Days may have retarded real 

 forestry by centering attention on 

 planting, to the exclusion of the proper 

 use of existing forests, and by intro- 

 ducing poetry and emotional appeal 

 instead of practical economic consid- 

 erations. 



The first systematic effort to arouse 

 public interest in the preservation and 

 conservative use of the natural forest 

 areas as distinct from planting of 

 artificial forests was instigated by 

 Franklin B. Hough's address before 

 the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science in 1873. 



The speech led the Association to 

 send to Congress and to the State leg- 

 islatures, in 1874, a memorial that 

 said: 



"The preservation and growth of 

 timber is a subject of great practical 

 importance to the people of the United 

 States, and is becoming every year of 

 more and more consequence, from the 

 increasing demand for its use; and 

 while this rapid exhaustion is taking 

 place, there is no effectual provision 

 against waste or for the renewal of 

 supply. . . . Besides the economical 

 value of timber for construction, fuel, 

 and the arts . . . questions of cli- 

 mate . . . the drying up of rivulets 

 . . . and the growing tendency to 

 floods and drought . . . since the cut- 

 ting off of our forests are subjects of 

 common observation. . . ." 



The Association asked Congress to 

 create the position of Federal Commis- 

 sioner of Forestry, whose duties would 

 be to ascertain ( 1 ) the amount and dis- 

 tribution of woodlands in the United 

 States, the rate of consumption and 

 waste, and measures necessary to in- 

 sure adequate future supplies of tim- 

 ber; (2) the influence of forests on 

 climate, especially in relation to agri- 

 culture; and (3) the methods of for- 

 estry practiced in Europe. 



THE YEARS FROM 1876 TO 1897 

 brought a growth in national and State 

 firest-land policies. The Agriculture 



