22 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



In 1795, the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and 

 Manufactures published a report on the best method of preserving 

 and increasing the growth of timbers, recommending that lands .least 

 valuable for agriculture be devoted to forests. This society evinced 

 considerable interest in timber in various ways. In 1818, a Massachu- 

 setts act authorized agricultural societies of the state to offer pre- 

 miums to encourage the growth of oaks and other trees necessary to 

 the maintenance of a supply of ship-building material.* 



This early interest in forestry does not of course represent a very 

 common sentiment among the people. It is probable that some of this 

 colonial legislation was inspired, or in some cases even imposed, by the 

 royal governors. Also, some of the colonial laws which are sometimes 

 referred to as illustrations of an early conservation sentiment, have 

 probably very little to do with conservation. Thus, there were many 

 statutes forbidding the cutting of timber on the lands of other per- 

 sons, but these statutes seem to have meant merely that timber had 

 come to have a value, rather than that the colonies were in general 

 particularly apprehensive of a future scarcity of timber. "^ 



Nevertheless, the illustrations given doubtless have some signifi- 

 cance. There was some interest in forest conservation even in this 

 early period, an interest due to the fact that the settlers had come 

 from Europe where scarcity of timber was already felt, to the fact 

 that the extent of the forest domain was entirely unknown, the popu- 

 lation confined mainly to the Atlantic coast, and to the fact that, in 

 the absence of railroad communication, only supplies of timber adja- 

 cent to rivers and sea were available. Furthermore, as in Europe, the 

 fuel question was becoming acute in some places, since coal had not 

 yet been brought into use, and location of timber supplies close to 

 centers of civilization was of great importance. 



THE UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVES 



The first action of the United States government regarding timber 

 lands had no connection with these early signs of conservation inter- 

 est, but was concerned rather with the matter of national defense. 



4 Fernow, "Economics of Forestry," 369 et seq. : Proceedings, Am. Forestry 

 Congress, 1885, 58. 



5 Bui 3T0, Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. Station. 



