THE PERIOD OF BEGINNINGS 45 



provided that the planting of seeds, nuts or cuttings should be deemed 

 compliance with the act, and in 1878, the entire measure was over- 

 hauled in detail,^* tlie chief amendment being a reduction in the 

 amount of timber required from forty to ten acres — a considerable 

 reduction from the 120 acres required by the bill as originally intro- 

 duced. The results of the law as thus amended will be treated in a 

 later connection. Suffice it to say here, that the law never had any 

 appreciable effect in stimulating forest growth. 



THE FIRST FOREST RESERVE BILL 



In connection with conservation measures we may note that even 

 during the seventies, there appears a suggestion of the national for- 

 ests of later years, in a bill introduced in 1876 by Representative 

 Fort of Illinois : "For the preservation of the forests of the national 

 domain adjacent to the sources of the navigable rivers and other 

 streams of the United States."" Nothing was done with the bill, and it 

 indicates no special interest in the matter, even on the part of Fort 

 himself, who introduced it "by request," but it was a precedent, and 

 shows that the idea of forest reserves had been conceived. 



UNFAVORABLE LEGISLATION NOT APPLYING SPECIFICALLY 



TO TIMBER 



It is now clear that Congress had, in the period ending with 1878, 

 taken important steps in favor of conservation. The policy of annual 

 appropriations to protect timber had been inaugurated, and in 1878, 

 the appropriation greatly increased; while in 1876, a direct appro- 

 priation had been made for forestry investigations ; and the creation 

 of forests on the prairies had at least been in good faith attempted. 

 Finally, the policy of forest reserves had been suggested. 



There was not, however, an unbroken advance, and while in the 

 above we see the germs of future development along the lines of forest 

 conservation, during the same time other factors of a different variety 

 appeared, factors whose pernicious influence can only now be fully 

 appreciated. 



■liStat. 19, 54; 20, 113. 



75 H. R. 2075; 44 Cong. 1 sess. 



