Forest Reservation Policy. 417 



later Assistant Commissioner of the General Land Office, 

 deserves mention as most active in securing this reserva- 

 tion policy. 



Acting under this authority. Presidents Cleveland 

 and Harrison proclaimed, previous to 1894, seventeen 

 forest reservations, with a total estimated area of 17,- 

 500,000 acres. 



The reservations were established usually upon the 

 petition of citizens residing in the respective States and 

 after due examination, the Forestry Association acting 

 as intermediary. 



Meanwhile no provision for the administration of the 

 reserves existed, and the comprehensive legislation de- 

 vised by the Chief of the Division of Forestry, which in- 

 cluded a withdrawal and administration of all public 

 timberlands, failed to be enacted, although in the Fifty- 

 third Congress it was passed by both Houses, but failed 

 to become a law merely for lack of time to secure a con- 

 ference report. But the purpose of the advocates of for- 

 estry was to create such a condition as would compel 

 Congress to act, by continually withdrawing forested 

 lands that would lie useless until authority was given for 

 their proper use and administration. 



In order to secure influential support from outside, a 

 committee of the Forestry Association induced the then 

 Secretary of the Interior, Hoke Smith, in 1896, to re- 

 quest the Xational Academy of Sciences, the legally con- 

 stituted adviser of the government in scientific matters, 

 to investigate and report "upon the inauguration of a 

 rational forest policy for the forested lands of the 

 United States." After an unnecessary so-called "junket* ' 

 of a committee of the Academy to investigate the public 



