18 OUR NATIONAL FORESTS 



the administration and Forest Superintendents and 

 Rangers were appointed to take charge of the 

 Reservations. The rules and regulations for ad- 

 ministering the Reserves were formulated by the 

 Commissioner of the General Land Office. 



The Division of Forestry in 1898. On July 1, 

 1898, the Division of Forestry employed 11 per- 

 sons, 6 clerical and 5 scientific. There were also 

 some collaborators and student assistants. There 

 was no field equipment and no field work. But in 

 the fall of 1898 an important step was taken. 

 From that time on the Division of Forestry offered 

 practical assistance to forest owners and thus it 

 shifted its field of activity from the desk to the 

 woods. The lumbermen were met on their own 

 grounds and actual forest management for purely 

 commercial ends was undertaken by well known 

 lumbermen. From that time dates the solution of 

 specific problems of forest management and the 

 development of efficient methods of attacking them. 

 The work of the Division at this time, therefore, 

 consisted of activities along 4 distinct lines: (1) 

 that of working plans, (2) that of economic tree 

 planting, (3) that of special investigations, and (4) 

 that of office work. Thus it will be seen, even at 



