Beginnings of Federal Policy. 475 



ing 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 a memorial to Congress, point- 

 ing out "the importance of promoting the cultivation 

 of timber and the preservation of forests, and recom- 

 mending the appointment of a commission of forestry 

 to report to Congress," there already existed an in- 

 telligent audience, and although a considerable amount 

 of lethargy and lack of interest was exhibited, Con- 

 gress could be persuaded, in 1876, to establish an 

 agency in the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, out of which grew later the Division of Fores- 

 try, a bureau of information on forestry matters. Dr. 

 Franklin B. Hough, one of the signers of the memorial, 

 was appointed to the agency. It is to be noted as 

 characteristic of much American legislation, that this 

 agency was secured only as a "rider" to an appro- 

 priation for the distribution of seed. 



While these were the beginnings of an official recog- 

 nition of the subject by the federal government, pri- 

 vate enterprise and the separate States also started 

 about the same time to forward the movement. In 

 1867, the agricultural and horticultural societies of 

 Wisconsin were invited by the legislature to appoint 

 a committee to report on the disastrous effects of 

 forest destruction. In 1869, the Maine Board of 

 Agriculture appointed a committee to report on a 

 forest policy for the State, leading to the act of 1872 

 "for the encouragement of the growth of trees, ex- 

 empting from taxation for twenty years lands planted 



