40 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



the resources of the country and opposed to conservation ; and when 

 other forces became strong enough to attempt legislation, these forces 

 united in opposition. 



CONSERVATION ACTIVITY IN CONGRESS 



Probably little significance is to be attached to the grant of $10,000 

 in the annual appropriation bill of 1868, for various purposes, includ- 

 ing the purchase of trees, vines, and bulbs.^^ This item appeared each 

 year thereafter, but doubtless the purchase and distribution of seeds, 

 bulbs and vines among the people is significant rather of the quality 

 of American statesmanship than of any great interest in forestry. 



The first appropriation for the protection of timber lands, in the 

 Naval Appropriation Act of 1872, has been mentioned. There had 

 been some effort to protect the timber lands long before this. A system 

 of timber agencies had been established very early, but discontinued 

 in 1854, when the supervision was transferred to the Department of 

 the Interior.*^ In 1855, however, a circular had been issued by the 

 Department of the Interior directing the land officers to investigate 

 any reports of spoliation of public timber lands, and to seize all tim- 

 ber cut from such lands and sell it at public auction ; while they were 

 to notify the proper officers so that the trespassers might be arrested. 

 No compromise was permitted. 



The circular of 1855 remained the basis of regulation down to 

 1877, when Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz inaugurated the 

 system of special agents for the detection of timber trespasses ;** 

 but a lack of effective enforcement is indicated by the fact that the 

 total net revenue to the government for millions of dollars worth of 

 timber taken, from the beginning of records to January, 1877, was 

 only $154,373. Before 1872, it was a general rule that the expenses 

 incurred should be limited to the amount realized from the sale of the 

 timber seized, and of course this prevented any effective prosecution 

 of timber trespassers.*® 



46 Stat. 13, 155. 



47 Hough, "Report on Forestrjs" I, 12: Report, Sec. of Int., 1877, 16-20. 



48 Hough, "Report on Forestry," II, 8. 



49 Ibid., I, 13. 



