DR. SARGENT'S CONTRIBUTION TO FORESTRY IN AMERICA 



BY HENRY S. GRAVES 



HISTORY has demonstrated in the United States, as in 

 other countries, that the establishment of forestry is 

 a process of many years of development. Much of what 

 we have achieved is the result of foundations laid from 

 thirty to forty years ago by men of vision and strength 

 who instituted the first fight against the destruction of 

 our forests. The history of forestry is not so long but 

 that some of the early pioneers of the movement are still 

 actively contributing to the work in a way that is pos- 

 sible only by those of wide knowledge and rich experi- 

 ence. Conspicuous among these leaders is Dr. Charles 

 Sprague Sargent, who exerted a powerful influence on 

 the initiation of the forestry movement in the early days, 

 who was responsible for a number of epochal steps in 

 forestry, and who is the foremost American scholar in 

 forest botany and arboriculture and the builder of a 

 great arboretum that is unmatched anywhere. His 

 scientific contribution to forestry and his personal in- 

 fluence on the movement will be increasingly appreciated 

 as the years go by. 



Forestry had its real beginnings in the seventies. The 

 progressive depletion of many of the more accessible 

 sources of timber supply caused a wide discussion of for- 

 estry in the East. About the same time the rapid settle- 

 ment of the prairies was taking place, and the home- 

 steaders were finding themselves greatly embarrassed 

 by the lack of lumber and other material needed on the 

 farm, a situation due to the fact that the great forests 

 of the Lake States had not yet been opened up and there 

 were still lacking transportation facilities to distribute 

 readily and cheaply such lumber as was obtainable. 

 These conditions explain the agitation in forestry and 

 especially for the planting of trees at that period. No less 

 than sixteen states enacted legislation for the encour- 

 agement of tree planting about that time, and in 1873 

 Congress passed the so-called Timber Culture Act, whose 

 purpose was to bring about the establishment of plan- 

 tations of trees on the plains. One important educational 

 influence was the action of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science in 1873, which memorial- 

 ized Congress and the State legislatures on the subject 

 of forestry, and specifically recommended the appoint- 

 ment by Congress of a competent commission of in- 

 quiry. This action resulted in a great deal of discus- 

 sion of the subject and was responsible for the federal 

 appropriation that enabled Dr. F. R. Hough to make 

 his special reports to the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 from 1877 to 1882. 



The first action of importance by the Federal Gov- 

 ernment, however, was the authorization of a special 

 study of the forests of the country in connection with 

 the tenth Census in 1880. This work was delegated to 

 Dr. Sargent. The results of his study were presented in 

 a monumental work for which an entire separate volume 



of the Census was devoted. There is in this work a com- 

 prehensive description of the forests of the country, 

 a survey of the situation with reference to existing sup- 

 plies of standing timber, the facts regarding the forest 

 industries, a statement regarding the destruction of 

 forests by fires, and a summary of the existing informa- 

 tion concerning the character and quality of the dif- 

 ferent commercial woods. This was the first important 

 eflfort to bring together in available form the facts in 

 regard to our forests. It provided for the first time 

 an economic background for the consideration of the 

 needs of the country for forestry. For many years 

 it furnished the chief source of. data for educating the 

 people of the country to the need of action. In fact, 

 no attempt was made to supplement this work in any 

 large way until 1908, when a large amount of information 

 based upon existing conditions was assembled by the Na- 

 tional Conservation Commission appointed by President 

 Roosevelt. The influence of the work of Dr. Sargent 

 through his report for the tenth Census was very far- 

 reaching and greater than can be measured. 



In connection with this work for the tenth Census Dr. 

 Sargent brought together a noteworthy collection of 

 specimens of the woods of the United States. This was 

 made possible through the generosity of Mr. Morris K. 

 Jesup of New York who provided the necessary funds. 

 The specimens were in the form of sections of tree 

 trunks of typical size, showing the character of the 

 bark and with a portion of each section cut in a way to il- 

 lustrate the grain of the wood. The collection is now 

 in the Museum of Natural History of New York. So far 

 as I know there is no other collection of wood speci- 

 mens equal to it anywhere in the world. 



One of the outstanding accomplishments in forestry 

 has been the building up of the State Forest Preserve 

 in New York. We have that splendid undertaking to- 

 day because of the foresight of public spirited men 

 nearly forty years ago. At that time the State owned 

 in the Adirondack^ and Catskills something over 700,- 

 000 acres of forest land. These State lands, which were 

 entirely without protection, were the object of extensive 

 stealing of timber, were in many cases being swept by 

 forest fires, and were also subject to numerous fraudulent 

 transactions through the misuse of the laws relating to 

 tax redemptions ard cancellations. It became generally 

 known in 1883 that tlie Aditondack Raihoad Company 

 contemplated the extension of its lines into the heart 

 of the wilderness in order to exploit the -imber on its 

 extensive holdings. This property comprised 500,000 

 acres and about twenty years before had been granted 

 to the predecessors of the Adirondack Railroad Company 

 for five cents an acre. The proposal to exploit; this 

 great tract and to bring the railroad into it, which would 

 expose the whole region to damage by forest fires, caused 



