712 



Yearboo^ of Agriculture 1949 



timber sales and management plans. 



A scientific approach to forest-fire 

 prevention and control began in 1911 

 as a result of the 1910 conflagrations 

 which burned over nearly 5 million 

 acres and destroyed more than 3 bil- 

 lion feet of timber. Reforestation by 

 planting and sowing was mostly on an 

 experimental basis before 1911 but, by 

 1919, more than 150,000 acres had 

 been covered more than half of it 

 by sowing and not all of it successful. 



A comprehensive plan of forestry 

 research mainly in silviculture was 

 formulated in 1908 by Raphael Zon 

 and others. Several of the experiment 

 stations proposed in this plan were set 

 up, and in 1915 a branch of research 

 was established, with Earle H. Clapp 

 in charge. 



Cooperation of the Federal Govern- 

 ment with the States to encourage fire 

 protection on the watersheds of navi- 

 gable streams was authorized by the 

 Weeks Law of 1911. Federal contribu- 

 tions were to be contingent upon 

 adequate legislation and matching ap- 

 propriations by the States. In 1911 the 

 Government spent about $37,000, in 

 cooperation with 11 States, to protect 

 61 million acres of State and private 

 land. In 1919 the Federal expenditure 

 was $100,000, with 22 States cooperat- 

 ing and nearly 110 million acres under 

 organized protection. In the fiscal year 

 1948, with an appropriation of $9,000,- 

 000, the Federal Government cooper- 

 ated with 43 States and Hawaii in 

 protecting 328 million acres. 



By 1919 many of the States had es- 

 tablished some sort of forestry depart- 

 ment, usually headed by a technically 

 trained forester. Nearly all of them 

 had legislation providing for control 

 of forest fires, though the laws were 

 not always effective. Several States 

 had set aside State forests. The 

 States have continued to expand and 

 strengthen forestry work, and in 1948 

 it was reported that 38 States were 

 administering 11.6 million acres as 

 State forests. 



In 1919, Henry S. Graves, the For- 

 ester, summed up the situation with 



respect to forestry on private lands in 

 his annual report, as follows: 



"In the early years of the present 

 century it really looked as though the 

 management of forests as permanently 

 productive properties might be volun- 

 tarily undertaken by private owners on 

 a very large scale. Although many ob- 

 stacles were presented by the internal 

 conditions of the lumber industry, 

 progressive lumbermen were giving 

 much serious attention to the possibil- 

 ity of engaging in the practice of for- 

 estry. The chief stimulus was furnished 

 by the rising value of stumpage. The 

 panic of 1907 radically changed the 

 situation. The lumber industry entered 

 a period of protected depression. 

 From that time on private forestry 

 made relatively little progress in the 

 United States, except on farm wood- 

 lands. While public forestry has made 

 vast strides, the forests of the country 

 that are in private hands are being 

 depleted with very great rapidity, and 

 almost everywhere without effort to 

 renew them." 



Graves concluded that "the general 

 practice of forestry on privately owned 

 lands in the United States will not take 

 place through unstimulated private 

 initiative." He proposed a broad for- 

 estry policy for the Nation, to include 

 an expanded public program of land 

 acquisition and a program for the 

 protection and perpetuation of forest 

 growth on all privately owned forest 

 land that is not better for agriculture 

 or settlement. He proposed that the 

 Federal Government cooperate with 

 and work through the States in pro- 

 moting private forestry. 



BETWEEN 1919 AND 1949, private 

 forestry and public forestry expanded. 



Graves' 1919 report marked the 

 start of a campaign, which is still in 

 progress, to develop a national policy 

 for bringing about forestry on private 

 lands. 



W. B. Greeley, who became head of 

 the Forest Service in 1920, took up the 

 campaign where Graves left off. In 

 1920 the Capper Report on timber de- 



