322 NxATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Act entitled ' An Act to repeal the timber-culture laws, and for 

 other purposes,' approved March third, eighteen hundred and 

 ninety-one, and Acts supplemental to and amendatory thereof, 

 after such lands have been so reserved, excepting such laws as 

 affect the surveying, prospecting, locating, appropriating, enter- 

 ing, relinquishing, reconveying, certifying, or patenting of any 

 of such lands." '" 



At the beginning of the fiscal year this bureau, known as the 

 Forest Service, had in its employ 821 persons, of whom 153 w^ere 

 professionally trained foresters. In 1908 the force comprised 

 1779 persons, consisting of 29 inspectors, 98 forest supervisors, 

 61 deputies, 33 forest assistants, 8 planting assistants, 941 rangers, 

 521 guards and 88 clerks.^" The scope and magnitude of the 

 activities of the Service have increased year by year since that 

 date. 



Thus, after the lapse of fifteen years since the committee of 

 the Academy made its recommendations, the Government has 

 provided an effective organization for the protection of the 

 public forests — one which may be fairly said to possess the 

 principal features, though not the exact form, which the com- 

 mittee considered desirable. Instead of a bureau of forests in the 

 Department of the Interior we have the Forest Service in the 

 Department of Agriculture. Instead of a " director " and 

 " assistant director," we have a " chief forester " and " associate 

 forester " ; instead of " head foresters " and " foresters " we have 

 " forest supervisors " and " deputies." The division into depart- 

 ments has been adopted. The formation of a special " board of 

 forest lands " has not been carried into effect, the locating and 

 surveying of forest lands and kindred duties remaining in charge 

 of the General Land Office of the Department of the Interior. 



The plan of recruiting officers from West Point and providing 

 for retirement for age has not been adopted, while the forest 

 schools connected with universities and colleges have supplied 

 the means of educating young men in the principles of forestry 



'"Stat, at Large, vol. 33, part i, p. 628, 58th Congress, 3d Session, chap. 288, sec. i, 1905. 

 "°Rep. Dep. Agric. for 1908, p. 417. 



