706 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



ritories in regions where irrigation is 

 necessary, for the reason that the ex- 

 isting system of public-land disposal, 

 if continued, would injure Colorado 

 and "bring destruction and calamity 

 upon the entire population of the so- 

 called Far West." No action was taken 

 on the recommendation. 



In California, also, a State Board of 

 Forestry, established in 1885, urged in 

 its first report that all Federal and 

 State timberlands not fit for agricul- 

 ture be permanently reserved and put 

 in charge of forestry officers. In 1888 

 a resolution of the legislature asked 

 Congress to stop disposing of Federal 

 forest lands in California and to pre- 

 serve them permanently for protection 

 of watersheds. 



New York, in 1883, carried out the 

 recommendations made 11 years ear- 

 lier and stopped the sale of tax- 

 reverted forest lands in the Adiron- 

 dacks. In 1885 a Forestry Commission 

 was set up, with an appropriation of 

 $15,000, to organize a State forest- 

 protection system and administer the 

 State's forest reserve, the primary ob- 

 ject of which was the protection of 

 water supplies, not timber production. 

 Suspicion soon arose that the Forest 

 Commissioners were working for the 

 interests of the lumbermen, so a con- 

 stitutional amendment in 1894 pro- 

 hibited the cutting of timber and 

 required that the reserve be kept for- 

 ever in a wild condition. 



Pennsylvania created a Division of 

 Forestry in its Department of Agricul- 

 ture in 1895 to collect and publish in- 

 formation on forest resources, enforce 

 the fire laws, give advice on forestry, 

 compile statistics on timber production 

 and consumption, and manage all for- 

 est lands belonging to the State. In 

 1897 provision was made for purchase 

 of tax-delinquent forest lands, to es- 

 tablish "a forestry reservation system 

 having in view the preservation of the 

 water supply at the sources of the rivers 

 of the State, and for the protection of 

 the people of the Commonwealth and 

 their property from destructive floods." 

 Another law in 1897 directed the com- 



missioner to recommend to the Gover- 

 nor or the legislature three forest res- 

 ervations of not less than 40,000 acres 

 each, on the headwaters of the Ohio, 

 Delaware, and Susquehanna Rivers, to 

 be acquired by purchase. By 1910 the 

 State had acquired more than 900,000 

 acres under these acts. 



At the time that Western States were 

 urging the reservation of public lands 

 and when the Forestry Congress pro- 

 posed their transfer to the States, the 

 Federal Government had made no 

 move to withhold them from disposal 

 and only occasional gestures to protect 

 them from fires and depredation. 



Carl Schurz, Secretary of the In- 

 terior from 1877 to 1881, repeatedly, 

 but vainly, urged the reservation of all 

 public-domain timberlands and their 

 protection and conservative manage- 

 ment. Numerous bills looking to this 

 end were introduced in almost every 

 Congress from 1876 on. 



Finally, in 1891, largely on the in- 

 sistence of Secretary of the Interior 

 Noble, a rider, which Gifford Pinchot 

 called "the most important legislation 

 in the history of forestry in America," 

 was attached to an act amending the 

 land laws. It authorized the President 

 to reserve forest lands of the public 

 domain, whether bearing commercial 

 timber or not, in any State or Terri- 

 tory having Federal land. President 

 Harrison acted promptly and pro- 

 claimed the first reserve, the Yellow- 

 stone Park Timberland Reserve, on 

 March 30, 1891. This was the begin- 

 ning of the national forest system. 

 More reservations followed by Presi- 

 dent Harrison and then by President 

 Cleveland. 



Congress failed to provide, however, 

 for the protection and administration 

 of the reserves, nor was there any legal 

 way in which timber could be sold or 

 forest management applied. Timber 

 thieves and graziers continued to oper- 

 ate without restriction. Bills were intro- 

 duced in each Congress to remedy the 

 situation. In 1894 the McRae bill, 

 drafted by B. E. Fernow, Chief of the 

 Division of Forestry since 1886, was 



