20 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



of the officials showed that there was a real concern for the future 

 supply, at least of ship timber. Thus, in 1701, the Governor of New 

 York expressed his fear that the sawmills would destroy all the timber 

 in that colony, and recommended that each person who removed a tree 

 should pay for planting four or five young trees. Still earlier than 

 this, in 1696, the attention of the French governors of Canada had 

 been directed to the wasteful destruction of the forests.^ 



There appeared in a few instances, even on the part of the early 

 settlers themselves, indications of some regard for the future timber 

 supply.^ In 1626, an ordinance was passed in Plymouth Colony recit- 

 ing the inconveniences that are likely to arise in any community from 

 a lack of timber, and declaring that no man should sell or transport 

 any timber whatsoever out of the colony without the approval of the 

 governor and council. Perhaps this was the first conservation statute 

 passed in America. The ordinances of the Plymouth Colony, as re- 

 vised and published in 1636, forbade any person to sell out of the 

 colony any boards, planks, or timber cut from the lands reserved for 

 public use, without leave from the public authorities. A Plymouth 

 order of 1670 stated that several towns of the colony were already 

 much straitened for building timber, and granted such towns the 

 privilege of obtaining it from towns having plenty. In 1632, the 

 Court of Boston ordered that no one should fell any wood on public 

 grounds for paling, except such as had been viewed and allowed by 

 the proper public official. An order of the Providence Plantations 

 in 1638 required that two men should view the timber on the Common 

 and determine what was best suited for the use of each person. Various 

 statutes were early enacted in Rhode Island and in other colonies, 

 regulating the export of lumber. In 1639, the General Court of the 

 New Haven Colony forbade anyone to cut timber from common 



2 Fox, "History of the Lumber Industry in New York," 16: Phipps, R. W., 

 "Report on the Necessity of Preserving and Replanting Forests," Toronto, 1883. 



3 Proceedings, Am. Forestry Congress, 1885: Bui. 370, Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. 

 Station: Fernow, "Economics of Forestry," 369: Kinney, "Forest Law in America," 

 Ch. I. It is recorded of the Pennsylvania Germans that they were economical in the 

 use of wood, even where it was abundant. They did not wantonly cut down forests 

 or burn them, and, when using wood as fuel, they built stoves, in which there was 

 less waste than in open fireplaces. The German of the nineteenth century likewise 

 proved himself a friend of the trees. Through his early training at home, he under- 

 stood the value of forests. Faust, "The German Element in the U. S.," II, 56-58. 



