10 OUR NATIONAL FORESTS 



16, 1876. This was the first of a series of Acts 

 passed by Congress which, although occurring 

 many years apart in some cases, put forest conser- 

 vation upon a firm basis. Under the first act the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture was directed: 



"To appoint some man of approved attainments who is 

 practically well acquainted with methods of statistical inquiry 

 and who has evinced an intimate acquaintance with ques- 

 tions relating to the national wants in regard to timber, to 

 prosecute investigations and inquiries with the view of ascer- 

 taining the annual amount of consumption, importation, and ex- 

 portation of timber and other forest products; the probable 

 supply for future wants; the means best adapted to their 

 preservation and renewal; the influence of forests upon 

 climate and the means that have been successfully applied in 

 foreign countries, or that may be deemed applicable in this 

 country for the preservation and restoration or planting of 

 forests, and to report upon the same to the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture, to be by him in a separate report transmitted to 

 Congress." 



Dr. Franklin B. Hough, an active, untiring, and 

 intelligent scholar, was the first man to be ap- 

 pointed by this act. As Commissioner of Forestry 

 he prepared the first report and submitted it to Con- 

 gress. The next year, in 1877, Congress granted 

 its first appropriation of $6,000, "for the purpose of 

 obtaining other facts and information preparatory 

 to establishing a Division of Forestry." 



