24 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



land, and the planting of trees on land already owned by the govern- 

 ment.^ 



In connection with a naval appropriation act of 1827, the Presi- 

 dent was authorized to take proper measures to preserve the oak tim- 

 ber on the public lands, and to reserve such lands anywhere on the 

 public domain. Not only was provision made for the reservation of 

 these lands, but in Florida a system of cultivation was undertaken, 

 with various experiments in transplanting — the first efforts at experi- 

 mental forestry on the part of the United States government. An act 

 passed in 1828 authorized the use of $10,000 of the naval appropria- 

 tion of 1827 for the purchase of lands bearing live oak or other 

 timber.^" 



The need of protection for the reserved timber was apparent, and 

 in 1831, a law was passed forbidding the removal of oak, red cedar, or 

 any other timber from these reserved lands, or from any other lands 

 of the United States. The act of 1817 had prohibited the cutting of 

 oak or red cedar from all the public lands of the United States, but 

 the act of 1831 was the first general act applying to the entire domain 

 and to all kinds of timber. ^^ 



One of the sections of an appropriation bill in 1833 required "all 

 collectors of customs within the territory of Florida, and the states of 

 Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, before allowing clearance to any 

 vessel laden in whole or in part with live oak timber, to ascertain sat- 

 isfactorily that such timber was cut from private lands, or if from 

 public ones, by consent of the Navy Department."^^ Such vigilance as 

 this indicates considerable interest in the preservation of a certain 

 kind of the public timber. 



Under authority of these various acts, a small amount of timber 

 land was reserved in separate parcels in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 

 Mississippi and Louisiana ; but the government experienced great diffi- 

 culty in preventing trespass by timber thieves and encroachments by 

 settlers, and it presently appeared that there was no navy timber of 



9 Kinney, "Forest Law in America," 236-239. 



10 Hough, "Report on Forestry," III, 330: Stat. 4, 242, 256. 



^^Stat. 4, 472. In U. S. vs. Briggs (9 Howard, 351), the Supreme Court of the 

 United States held that this statute applied to all of the public lands of the United 

 States, whether reserved for naval purposes or not. 



12 Stat. 4, 647. 



