98 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



OTHER INDICATIONS OF CONSERVATION INTEREST 

 Still other indications of interest in forest preservation appeared. 

 In 1883, the Carriage Builders' National Association, at its eleventh 

 annual convention, and the National Agricultural Convention of the 

 same year, adopted memorials to Congress calling for various conser- 

 vation measures. Several years later, the owners of about 93,000 acres 

 of forest lands in the southwestern part of the Adirondack region 

 formed the Adirondack League Club for the purpose of organized 

 management of their lands — perhaps the first attempt at scientific 

 private forest management in this country, on any large scale.^^^ 



It has now been shown that during the period from 1878 to 1891, 

 the public timber lands were being stolen and plundered on a vast 

 scale; that government officials and scientific men repeatedly called 

 attention to conditions ; and that a more vigorous sentiment in favor 

 of conservation had developed. The response of Congress in regard to 

 the two most iniquitous laws on the subject, the Free Timber Act and 

 the Timber and Stone Act, has been indicated, but fortunately the 

 policy of Congress was not so unwise in all ways as it was in regard 

 to these two acts. 



CONGRESSIONAL ACTION NOT SPECIFICALLY RELATING TO 



TIMBER LANDS: THE PUBLIC LANDS COMMISSION AND 



THE GENERAL REVISION ACT OF 1891 



During the latter seventies, there was a great deal of agitation 

 regarding the administration and disposal of the public lands, partly 

 due to the influence of Schurz; and one result of this agitation was 

 the establishment of a commission in 1879 to codify the land laws, to 

 classify the public lands, and to make such recommendations as they 

 might deem wise in regard to their disposal. ^^^ The commission 

 appointed consisted of Thomas Donaldson, A. T. Britton, and J. W. 

 Powell ; the Commissioner of the Land Office and the Director of the 

 Geological Survey being ex-officio members. They made a tour of the 

 West, visiting, either as a body or in detachments, all of the western 

 states except Washington, and early in 1880 presented a preliminary 

 report,^^^ with a bill for the complete revision of the land laws. While 



127 Am. Jour, of Forestry, 1883, 238: Proceedings, Am. Forestry Assoc, 1890, 31. 



128 Stat. 20, 394. 



129 H. Ex. Doc. 46; 46 Cong. 2 sess. 



