84 A PRIMKR OK FORESTRY.. 



of the Navy. Three years later an act was passed which 

 is still almost the only protection for the much-abused 

 forests of the public domain. 



In isTi' the Yellowstone National Park was estab- 

 lished, and in 187.'> Congress passed the timber-culture 

 act. which gave Government land in the treeless regions 

 to whoever would plant one-fourth of his claim with 

 trees. Jn 1875, the American Forestry Association 

 was formed in Chicago through the efforts of Dr. John 

 A. Warder, who was one of the first men to agitate 

 forest questions in the United States. In the centen- 

 nial year (1876) Dr. Franklin B. Hough, perhaps the 

 foremost pioneer of forestry in America, was appointed 

 special agent in the Department of Agriculture. This 

 was the beginning of educational work in forestry at 

 Washington. Soon afterward Congress began tc make 

 appropriations to protect the public timber, but noth- 

 ing was done to introduce conservative forest manage- 

 ment. The present Bureau of Forestry in the De- 

 partment of Agriculture was established as a division 

 in 1881. 



About this time forest associations began to be estab- 

 lished in the different States, the most influential and 

 effective of which has been that in Pennsylvania. The 

 States also began to form forest boards or commissions 

 of their own. 



In 1888 the first forest bill was introduced in Con- 

 gress. It failed to pas>. but in 1891 an act was p;i--ed 

 which was the first step toward a true policy for the 

 forestfi of the nation. The first step toward national 

 forestry i- control of the national forests. This act, 

 whose chief purpose was to repeal the timber-culture 



