26 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



if not most eases the- legislation leading to these commissions has been cither formulated 01 

 suggested by the writer, or at least supported by arguments and facts drawn from tin- Division. 



The State of New York has set aside a forest reserve of over 1,00(1,000 acres, and is adding 

 yearly to it by purchase, intending to increase it ultimately to :>,000.00() acres. 



The legislation establishing the first commission to take charge of the forest property of the. 

 State was formulated by the writer in 1885 at the request of State Senator Low, who secured its 

 passage, while several other bills drawn for the same purpose were tabled. 



The State of Pennsylvania has last year followed the example and launched into a similar 

 policy. It has purchased, or is about to purchase, a number of forest reservations, which are 

 placed under the management of the active forest commissioner. 



The Federal Government finally has reserved 38,000,000 acres of the public timber lands as 

 forest reservations. While to commit our Government to such a policy, which would twenty 

 years ago have appeared entirely foreign to our ideas of government functions, could hardly have 

 been accomplished by any one agency, nevertheless t!ie result has been undoubtedly an effect of 

 the educational campaign carried on mainly by the Division. 



Dr. Hough, in his third report, suggested the withdrawal of all public timber lands and 

 discussed principles for their management. In 1880 the present writer formulated further 

 methods of management (see page 164, Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1886), and 

 in 1887 framed a comprehensive bill which was presented to Congress and advocated through the 

 American Forestry Association. This bill, afterwards known as the Paddock bill ' later modified 

 into the so-called McRae bill, 2 contains the features upon which all subsequent legislation regard- 

 ing forest reserves has been based. 



The section of the law of March 3, 1891, which establishes the policy of forest reservations 

 was formulated by the then Secretary of the Interior who publicly and in print :i acknowledged 

 his indebtedness for the idea to the educational influence referred to. 



In securing the first reservations to the extent of nearly 20,000,000 acres, the American Foresi ry 

 Association ruid the chief of the Division, at the same time the chairman of the executive com 

 m it tee of the Association, were most active, as may be learned from the files in the General Land 

 Office. 



Several bills providing for the administration of these forest reserves were also formulated and 

 supported ?>y argument before the Public Lands Committee of both House and Senate, and the 

 passage of one of these in both Houses was secured in 1895, failing to become a law only from 

 lack of time to secure a conference report. 



VV'-hile the influence of other agencies in bringing about these various advances toward a 

 forestry system in the United States is not denied or undervalued, the writer, as a fair historian, 

 has found it necessary to assume the position of seeming self -glorification. It was impossible to 

 dissociate the personal efforts of the chief from the work of the Division, and it was also impossible, 

 to offer a justification for the existence of the Division, as was evidently required by the clause in 

 the act of 1S!)7 calling for this report, without tracing in definite directions the tangible results 

 which its work has secured, directly or indirectly. 



In addition to the unquestionable advancement in educational and legislative direction, t lie 

 Division has also produced as described an amount of valuable technical information, which in 

 itself is believed to furnish ample justification for its past existence. 



Finally, it should be stated that a small number of timber-land owners have, ventured to place 

 their woodlands under management. While in most of these cases the Division had no direct 

 relation to the undertaking, its long-continued educational campaign, which made it apparent 

 that decreasing supplies can only be met by intelligent recuperative methods, must have had its 

 effect in inducing such beginnings. 



In conclusion, I may be permitted upon my retirement from the direction of its work to charac- 

 terize the past period of twenty years of the existence of the Division as the period of propaganda 

 and primary education. We have during this period made the beginnings for a new departure, 



1 S. 2367, Fifty-first Congress. 



8 See page 15 of the Report of the Division of Forestry for 1887. 



:! See Proceedings American Forestry Association, vol. 10. 



