CHAPTER XII. 



THE FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. 



FROM the very- beginning of the settlement of 

 the country some wise heads recognized that atten- 

 tion to satisfactory forest conditions is as neces- 

 sary as attention to other economic conditions. 

 William Penn, the founder and first legislator of 

 Pennsylvania, as early as 1682, stipulated in his 

 ordinances, regarding the disposal of lands, that 

 for every five acres cleared of forest growth one 

 acre should be left to forest. In 1640, only two 

 years after its settlement, the inhabitants of 

 Exeter, N. H., adopted a general order for the 

 regulation of the cutting of oak timber, then a 

 most valuable export material, a precaution which 

 other towns followed. In 1701, the governor of 

 New York reports 40 mills in the province of New 

 York, and referring to one working with 12 saws, 

 he adds, " A few such mills will quickly destroy 

 all the woods in the Province at a reasonable dis- 

 tance from them." And he recommended that 

 each person who removed a tree should pay for 

 planting four or five young trees, as the Russians 

 do to-day. 1 



1 See " History of the Lumber Industry in the State of New 

 York," by Colonel W. T. Fox, 6th Rept. of F. F. G. Com., 1901. 

 2B 369 



