FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN UNITED STATES. 377 



when, in 1873, a committee on forestry of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science was formed, and its memorial calling for 

 the creation of a commissioner of forestry to gather 

 information was presented to Congress, there ex- 

 isted already an intelligent audience; and, although 

 a considerable amount of lethargy and lack of 

 interest was exhibited. Congress could be per- 

 suaded, in 1876, to establish the agency in the 

 United States Department of Agriculture out of 

 which grew the Division of Forestry now desig- 

 nated as Bureau of Forestry. 



While these were the beginnings of an official 

 recognition of the subject by the federal govern- 

 ment, private enterprise and the separate states 

 started also about the same time to forward the 

 movement. In 1867, the agricultural and horti- 

 cultural societies of Wisconsin appointed a com- 

 mittee to report on the disastrous effects of forest 

 destruction. In 1869, the Maine Board of Agricul- 

 ture appointed a committee to report on a forest 

 policy for the state, leading to the act of 1872 "for 

 the encouragement of the growth of trees," ex- 

 empting from taxation for twenty years lands 

 planted to trees, which law, as far as we know, 

 remained without result. About the same time a 

 real wave of enthusiasm with regard to planting of 

 timber seems to have pervaded the country, and 

 especially the Western prairie states. In addition 

 to laws regarding the planting of trees on high- 



