112 OUR VANISHING FORESTS 



ernment might have taken some steps to classify 

 land before making sales, and would probably have 

 reserved much of the forest area. This was in fact 

 the policy subsequently pursued in Canada, where 

 the chief forests are still owned today by the provin- 

 cial governments, and the sale of lumbering rights 

 not only constitutes an important source of public 

 income, but simplifies the whole problem of protec- 

 tion and conservation. The policy pursued in the 

 United States, however, was in accord with the best 

 understood theories of developing the country by 

 allowing its citizens to avail themselves of the rich- 

 ness of her natural resources, and indeed private 

 exploitation thus encouraged was undoubtedly re- 

 sponsible for the virile and rapid growth of the west. 

 It was not until about twenty years ago, when 

 there remained in the public domain only a limited 

 forest area, that there arose any wide agitation for 

 protecting our natural resources, and the word "con- 

 servation" came into use. To be sure, the first Na- 

 tional Forests were set apart in 1891 by withdraw- 

 ing the land from sale, but this policy was not then 

 understood and for the first twenty years constant 

 efforts were made in Congress to do away with it. 

 That feeling gradually passed away, and, as river 

 navigation and water power development were much 

 talked of, it was felt to be essential that the forests 



