THE PERIOD OF CONSERVATION 155 



like a revival of the Timber Culture Law.^* In 1900, the sum given for 

 general expenses was again doubled, and the next year doubled again, 

 a total of $185,000 being provided in the latter year for the Bureau 

 of Forestry, which succeeded the Division of Forestry. In 1902, the 

 appropriation for the Bureau of Forestry was increased over $100,- 

 000, and the next year was raised to $350,000. In 1904, $425,140 

 was provided, while the additional sum of $200,000 was given for a 

 forestry and irrigation exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair.^° 



TRANSFER OF THE RESERVES TO THE DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE 



In connection with the appropriations for timber protection, atten- 

 [tion must be directed to the transfer of the forest reserve administra- 

 [tion, in 1905, from the Department of the Interior to the Department 

 'of Agriculture. This transfer did not mean simply that the appro- 

 1 priations went to a different department ; it meant that money given 

 [for protection was more efficiently used, and it is even probable that 

 ' appropriations were more generous after 1905, because of the greater 

 efficiency in their expenditure. 



Previous to 1905, the forest work of the government was badly 

 i scattered, the Land Office, in the Department of the Interior, being 

 charged with the administration and protection of the forest reserves, 

 the Geological Survey with the surveying, while the Division of For- 

 estry — later the Bureau of Forestry — in the Department of Agri- 

 culture, directed the technical research and investigation. The dis- 

 advantages arising from this dispersal of functions became more and 

 more apparent as the area of forest reserves increased. Also the Land 

 Office was not well fitted to carry on the work of forest management, 

 for it had no trained foresters and no facilities of developing them, or 

 of developing the scientific knowledge upon which intelligent forest 

 administration must be based. The Land Office attempted to do little 

 but protect the forests against trespass and fire, although some timber 

 was sold and the grazing of stock was regulated to some extent. This 

 policy of merely guarding the forest reserves, without providing for 

 their proper use — a policy of "locking up" a valuable resource — was 



:s* Stat. 30, 952. 



35 Stat. 31, 197, 929, 930; 32, 295, 1157; 33, 177, 286. 



