FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



by rapid strides into its modern methods and volume. In 18(!5 the State of New York still fur- 

 nished more lumber than any other State; now it supplies only insignificant amounts. 



In 18G8 the golden age of lumbering had arrived in Michigan ; in 1871 rafts filled the Wiscon- 

 sin; in 1875 Kan Claire had .'!0, Marathon 30. and Fond du Lac 20 sawmills, now all gone; and 

 mills at LA (Jrosse, which were cutting millions of feet annually, are now closed. By 1882 the 

 Saginaw Valley had reached the climax of its production, and the lumber industry of the great 

 Northwest, with a cut of 8,000,000,000 feet of white pine alone, was in full blast. Southern devel- 

 opment began much later to assume large proportions, but by the present time the lumber product 

 of the Southern States has grown to proportions equal to those of the Northern States or the 

 Great Lakes States, each of the three sections furnishing about equal shares in the enormous 

 total cut. 



No wonder that those observing this rapid decimation of our forest supplies and the incredible 

 wastefulness and additional destruction by fire, with no attention to the aftergrowth, began again 

 to sound the note of alarm. Besides the writings in the daily press and other non-official publica- 

 tions, we find the reports of the Department of Agriculture more and more frequently calling 

 attention to the subject. 



In the report issued by the Patent Office as early as 1849, we find the following significant 

 language in a discussion on the influence of forests on water flow and their rapid destruction: 



The waste of valuable timber in the United States, to say nothing of firewood, will hardly begin to be appre- 

 ciated until our population reaches 50,000,000. Then the folly and shortsightedness of this age will meet with a 

 degree of censure aud reproach not pleasant to contemplate. 



The report for 18GO contains a long article by J. G. Cooper on "The forests and trees of 

 northern America as connected with climate and agriculture." 



In 1S05 the Itev. Frederic Starr discussed fully and forcibly the "American forests, their 

 destruction and preservation," in which, with truly prophetic vision, he says: 



It is feared it will be long, perhaps a full century, before the results at which we ought to aim as a nation will 

 bo realized by our whole country, to wit, that we should raise an adequate supply of wood and timber for all our 

 wants. Tlie ei-ila whi<-li are anticipated it-ill probably in/row upon its for thirty years to come iclth tenfold the rapidity irit/i 

 irliicli 1-fntvriiif/ or ameliorating measures shall be adopted. 



And again : 



Like a cloud no bigger than a man's hand just rising from the sea, an awakening interest begins to come in 

 sight on this subject, which as a question of political economy will place the interests of cotton, wool, coal, iron, 

 meat, aud even grain beneath its feet. Some of these, according to the demand, can be produced in a few days, 

 others in a feu- months or iu a few years, but timber in not less than one generation. The nation has slept because 

 the gnawing of want has not awakened her. She has had plenty and to spare, but within thirty years she will be 

 conscious that not only individual want is present, but that it comes to each from permanent national famine of 

 wood. 



The article is full of interesting detail, and may be said to be the starting basis for the cam- 

 paign for better methods which followed. 



Another unquestionably most influential official report was that upon Forests and Forestry 

 of Germany, by Dr. John A. Warder, United States commissioner to the World's Fair at Vienna 

 in 1873. Dr. Warder set forth clearly and correctly the methods employed abroad in the use 

 of forests, and became himself one of the most prominent propagandists for their adoption in 

 bis own country. About the same time appeared the classical work of George P. Marsh, our 

 minister to Italy, "The Earth as Modified by Human Action," in which the evil effects on cultural 

 conditions of forest destruction were ably and forcibly pointed out. 



The census of 1870 also for the first time attempted a canvass of our forest resources under 

 Prof. F. W. Brewer, and the relatively small area of forest became known. All these publica- 

 tions had their influence in educating a larger number to a conception and consideration of the 

 importance of the subject, so that when, in 1873, the committee on forestry of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science was formed and presented its memorial to Congress, 

 there existed already an intelligent audience, and, although a considerable amount of lethargy 

 and lack of interest was exhibited, Congress could be persuaded, in 1876, to establish the agency 



