16 OUR NATIONAL FORESTS 



More Reserves Created. In spite of this serious 

 fault in the Act of March 3, 1891, more Forest 

 Reservations were created. By 1894 Presidents 

 Harrison and Cleveland had created about 17,500,- 

 000 acres and on a single day, February 22, 1897, 

 President Cleveland proclaimed over 20,000,000 

 acres. By the close of 1897 a total of almost 40,- 

 000,000 acres of Forest Reserves had been estab- 

 lished. 



During the six years following the law giving the 

 President power to establish Reserves, the Reserves 

 were under the jurisdiction of the General Land 

 Office. The appropriations of Congress were 

 small, amounting to less than $30,000 annually. 

 Such appropriations were used mainly for testing 

 timber strength and the conditions affecting quality. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE RESERVES UNDER THE 

 GENERAL LAND OFFICE 



The Act of June 4, 1897. The Secretary of the 

 Interior in 1896 requested the National Academy 

 of Sciences, the legally constituted advisor of the 

 Government in scientific matters, to investigate, re- 

 port upon, and recommend a National Forest pol- 

 icy. This resulted in the Act of June 4, 1897, 



