REPORT OF THE FORESTER. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



Forest Service, 

 Washington^ D. C, October 8, 1919. 

 Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of the work 

 in the Forest Service for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919. 



Henry S. Graves, 



Forester, 

 Hon. D. F. Houston, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



THE EXTENSION OF FORESTRY PRACTICE. 



The year covered by this report was signalized by a new move- 

 ment for extending the practice of forestry. More than 20 years ago 

 the Division of Forestrj' offered to give advice and assistance to pri- 

 vate timber owners who might wish to consider applying forest man- 

 agement. The offer received a remarkable response and formed a 

 real turning point in the forestry movement. For the first time for- 

 estry in the United States became something which a business man 

 could grasp and weigh on its merits as a definite business proposal. 

 This aidecf powerfully in bringing the whole question of forestry, 

 public as well as private, before the country. But it did not result m 

 any widespread acceptance of the practice of forestry by timberland 

 owners. 



The failure of this early movement to get private forests exten- 

 sively under management was, however, not immediate. The Divi- 

 sion of Forestry made its offer of cooperation early in the fiscal year 

 1898. By the close of tJie fiscal j'ear 1905 requests had been received 

 for the examination of private holdings, large and small, comprising 

 all told more than 10,900,000 acres of land. Many requests were from 

 lumber companies and other owners of extensive timber tracts. On 

 the strength of the showing made by the preliminary examinations, a 

 number of these large owners entered into cooperative agreements for 

 the preparation of working plans. The interest of the lumbermen 

 was much increased by the fact that the young foresters were able to 

 show them that they were losing money by certain wasteful prac- 

 lices. Closer utilization spread rapidly through the industry. Pub- 

 lic interest in forestry and an intelligent idea of what it meant be- 

 came general. In the early years of the present century it really 

 looked as though the management of forests as permanent productive 

 properties mignt be voluntarily undertaken by private owners on a 

 very large scale. Although many obstacles were presented by the in- 

 ternal conditions of the lumber industiy, progressive lumbermen were 

 giving much serious attention to the possibility of engaging in the 

 practice of forestry. The chief stimulus was furnished by the rising 

 value of stumpage. 



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