THE PERIOD FROM 1878 TO 1891 97 



work out a system of forestry for the state. This commission, com- 

 posed of Chas. S. Sargent, D. Willis James of New York, and two 

 others, submitted a report early the next year,^^^ and in March, 1885, 

 an elaborate bill, prepared with the assistance of F. B. Hough, was 

 presented to the legislature. In passing this bill, the legislature of 

 New York created the most comprehensive forestry commission in the 

 United States, one which was later copied by various states. Three 

 years later, Michigan created a forestry commission to work out a 

 policy for that state.^"^ 



California created a State Board of Forestry in 1885, which was 

 two years later endowed with police powers, and granted the rather 

 generous sum of $29,500 for salaries and expenses.^"^ In the year 

 1885, Ohio established a State Forestry Bureau, while Colorado pro- 

 vided for a commissioner of forests. Kansas (1887) and North 

 Dakota (1891) also provided for commissioners, that in North 

 Dakota being known as the superintendent of irrigation and forestry. 

 Even earlier than this, several of the Canadian provinces had fairly 

 well-organized forestry departments.^^* 



The various state forestry associations not only accomplished the 

 creation of these commissions, forestry boards, etc., but they secured 

 the passage of a great amount of other legislation dealing with 

 forest fires, tree planting, and other matters, forest fire laws being 

 often modeled after the New York law of 1885.^^^ The boom days of 

 timber culture had, of course, come before the year 1878, and during 

 the period following that, with the realization of the general useless- 

 ness of such laws,^^* came the repeal of many of them ; yet even down 

 to the present time some of the states have been experimenting with 

 bounties and tax exemptions. 



121 i?e/)or«. Forestry Commission of N. Y., Jan. 23, 1885. 



122 Proceedings, Am. Forestry Congress, 1888, 7. 



123 That California was not yet fully committed to a conservation policy is 

 shown by her neglect of the Yosemite forests, which had been turned over by the 

 Federal government to the care of the state. (S. Ex. Doc. 22; 52 Cong. 2 sess.) 



12^ Hough, "Report on Forestry," III, 15. 



125 Forest Circ. 13. State laws should, of course, not be taken too seriously, for, 

 already stated, they were ineffective and seldom enforced. 

 120 Preliminary Report on the Forestry of the Mississippi Vallej-, etc., Dept. 

 of Agr., 1882. 



