204 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May, 1919 



on them, while practically all the technical for- 

 esters were in the Bureau of Forestry in another 

 Department of Government. There was, to be 

 sure, co-operation between the departments, but 

 it was obvious that the best ends could not be 

 served so long as the technical foresters were 

 able to function only in an advisory capacity. 

 Consequently, on February 1, 1905, the admin- 

 istration of the Forest Reserves (which have 

 been since designated as National Forests) was 

 transferred to the Department of Agriculture and 

 the Forest Service formed by a combination 

 of the former Bureau of Forestry, which had 

 been chiefly an investigative organization direct- 

 ly charged with the handling of the resources 

 of the forests. The General Land Office re- 

 tained jurisdiction over the public domain but 

 outside of Alaska has never attempted to sell 

 timber on it, nor has this been necessary, since 

 under our laws it has been possible to purchase 

 land and timber from the unreserved public do- 

 main cheaply. 



Good Management — This. 



"The net effect of the transfer has been to 

 assure the handling of the timber sales on the 

 forests in accordance with the best principles 

 of forestry so that the future production of tim- 

 ber on the areas cut over would be assured. 

 With the widely varying stands in different for- 

 ests, this has meant in practice an equally wide 

 variation in the methods of cutting designed to 

 secure this future production. In fact, this 

 co-relation of the methods of cutting and of the 

 restrictions on purchasers to the kind of stand 

 in which the operation is conducted is one of the 

 chief reasons why the work of administering 

 timber sales should be in the hands of technical 

 foresters. If all stands were alike, it would 

 be relatively easy for the technical forester, 

 acting in an advisory capacity, to draw up a 

 set of rules which could be uniformly applied. 

 Congress, however, very wisely stipulated in the 

 Act of June 30, 1897, merely the objects to be 

 accomplished and left the means by which these 

 results were to be secured almost wholly to the 

 discretion of the administrative officers. The 

 result has been that where conditions per- 

 mitted, the removal of only the mature and over- 

 mature timber has been allowed, thus leaving 

 the younger and thriftier trees to grow until 

 they in turn become mature. In other stands it 

 has been necessary to start new crops of trees 

 and the cutting removes most of the present 

 stand, leaving, however, ample seed trees. It 

 is frequently possible to find both these general 

 forms of cutting on the same forest in stands of 



the same species, since each stand is examined 

 before the sale is made by technical foresters 

 and a plan of treatment outlmed m accordance 

 with the age and condition of the stand. 



Managing a Nation's Forest on a Proper Plan. 



"On the ground, the result has been that the 

 future productivity of the areas cut over is 

 assured. Between 700 million and 800 million 

 feet of timber are now being cut annually in the 

 National Forests, and this amount is certainly 

 to be increased in the future rather than to be 

 decreased. On some forests stands which were 

 cut over some years ago, with the reservation of 

 the younger, thriftier trees, are now being cut 

 for a second time. In other cases, where clean 

 cutting, with the reservation of seed trees, was 

 permitted, there are good stands of small seed- 

 lings which are rapidly growing and which will 

 make good timber in the future. Of course, 

 perfect success has not been secured m all cases 

 but, in general, the results vindicate the wisdom 

 of placing the administration of these areas in 

 the care of the technical forestry branch of the 

 Federal Government, which has been charged 

 with the co-relation of present timber use, future 

 timber production, continuous use of the forage 

 crop, in so far as ti does not interfere with the 

 other purposes for which the Forests were 

 created, and the protection of the flow of 

 streams rising within the Forests." 



H. S. GRAVES, Forester. 



Washington, D.C., May 7, 1919. 



Canada's Dual Control of Forests Outlived. 



It will be seen from the foregoing that the 

 developments in the United States have been 

 parallel in important respects to those in Can- 

 ada, to the extent that for many years, in both 

 countries after the importance of forestry was 

 theoretically recognized, the administration of 

 publicly-owned timber, on forest reserves, was 

 entrusted to a non-technical organization, not- 

 withstanding the fact that there was in exist- 

 ence a technical forestry organization which, ac- 

 cording to the logic of the situation, should 

 have been given the opportunity to handle this 

 work along scientific lines. Such matters are, 

 of course, in a somewhat less developed stage in 

 Canada than they are in the United States, and 

 it is, therefore, natural enough that the step 

 of placing forestry in the hands of the estab- 

 lished technical forestry organization should 

 come somewhat later in Canada than was the 

 case in the United States. 



It should also be noted that this transfer was 

 brought about in the United States only as the 



