126 



CONSERVATION 



ing almost exactly a decade, Secretary 

 Wilson having been elected President 

 of the Board on December 14, 1898. 



Ten years ago, our National forest 

 policy was in its small beginnings. The 

 government forest work was scattered 

 among three offices : the General Land 

 Office controlling the reserves, the Geo- 

 logical Survey surveying and mapping 

 the forest areas, and the Division of 

 Forestry, in the Department of Agri- 

 culture, maintaining the scientific 

 foresters. To-day this work is con- 

 centrated in the hands of the great 

 Forest Service, whose work is known 

 of all men. 



In 1898, the establishment of Na- 

 tional forests had but fairly begun with 

 the proclamation, on February 22, 1897, 

 by President Cleveland, of the reserves 

 recommended by the National Acad- 

 emy of Science, covering 21,379,840 

 acres. At the end of 1908 the National 

 Forests comprised 168,681,039 acres, an 

 area almost eight times as great. 



Then, the Appalachian- White Moun- 

 tain movement, which originated with 

 the organization, at Asheville, North 

 Carolina, November 22, 1899, f the 

 Appalachian National Park Associa- 

 tion, had not yet begun. To-day the 

 tide of favorable public sentiment has 

 risen so high that that measure cannot 

 much longer be successfully resisted. 



Then, the establishment of National 

 Forest Reserves was met, especially in 

 the mountain States and farther west, 

 with hostility ; to-day, it is generally 

 applauded. 



Ten years ago, State forestry work 

 was in its infancy, to-day it has reached 

 proportions to indicate which would re- 

 quire an article. 



Then most lumbermen and wood- 

 users regarded forestry as a fad ; now, 

 a host of them recognize it to be a 

 necessity. 



Ten years ago forest fires raged prac- 

 tically unchecked; lo-day, on the Na- 

 tional Forests, they are under control 

 and a source of minor concern. 



In 1898 the American Forestry As- 

 sociation had a membership of 892 ; it 



maintained no office or organ of its 

 own ; as a means of publicity it used 

 The Forester, a twenty-six page month- 

 ly. On December 31, 1908, its mem- 

 bership numbered 6,973 ; it has a six- 

 room office and a force of paid helpers ; 

 it owns and publishes CONSERVATION, 

 an eighty-page monthly ; it is affiliated 

 with ten forestry and wood-using as- 

 sociations, and it conducts activities 

 which make it a force in the forestry 

 movement of America and the world. 



Among the other agencies now pro- 

 moting the forestry movement, almost 

 all of which have sprung up within the 

 decade, should be noted three forestry 

 associations, National in scope, and 

 thirty-three state organizations, three 

 postgraduate and nine undergraduate 

 schools of forestry, and numerous other 

 institutions giving courses in the same 

 subject. 



In the promotion of all this work, 

 the influence of Secretary Wilson has 

 been far-reaching. His throne has 

 been the office of the Department of 

 Agriculture. The present may offer a 

 fitting opportunity for a glance at the 

 work of this mighty institution. 



Historically, the era of primitive 

 freedom once passed, agriculture has 

 constituted the lowest stratum of the 

 industrial and social pyramid. The 

 tillers cf the soil have been the pariahs 

 and "mud-sills" of society. Their type 

 has been Gurth, "born thrall of Cedric, 

 the Saxon ;" or the serf who, toiling in 

 his fields by day, has by night beaten 

 the ponds and marshes lest the frogs 

 disturb the slumbers of his master. The 

 land has been primarily a pleasure 

 ground for the rich, and only second- 

 arily a source of sustenance for man. 

 In importance, the chase by the lordly 

 hunter has far out-ranked the labor of 

 the producer. The first claimant upon 

 the crop was the game-bird or animal 

 in whose pursuit idlers found amuse- 

 ment. To kill a hare was to be hanged : 

 to spread nets for pigeons was a capi- 

 tal crime ; to aim at a stag was to be 

 tied alive to its back. Henry IV. of 

 France "signed the sentence of death 

 upon peasants guilty of having defend- 



