FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN UNITED STATES. 403 



elation, the following section was added to the act 

 entitled " An act to repeal timber culture laws, and 

 for other purposes," approved March 3, 1891 : 



"SEC. 24. That the President of the United States 

 may, from time to' time, set apart and reserve, in 

 any State or Territory having public lands bearing 

 forests, any part of the public lands wholly or in 

 part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether 

 of commercial value or not, as public reservations, 

 and the President shall, by public proclamation, 

 declare the establishment of such reservations and 

 the limits thereof." 



It is upon this feeble " rider," attached to a bill 

 hardly germane to the subject, that the forest 

 reservation policy of the federal government is 

 based, that the federal land policy, which before 

 considered only disposal of the public domain, 

 was changed, the government becoming a land- 

 owner for continuity. 



Acting upon this authority, Presidents Cleveland 

 and Harrison established seventeen forest reser- 

 vations, with a total estimated area of 17,500,000 

 acres previous to 1894. 



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 the legislation devised for the ad- 

 ministration of the forest reserves, existing or to 

 be established (H. R. 119), specially urged by 



