STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 105 



licity has been called by two names in Congress ac- 

 cording to the point of view. If it favors a Con- 

 gressman's cause, he may call it "publicity." If it 

 opposes his cause, he may call it "propaganda." 



THE COMING OF CONSERVATION 



We have seen that forest conservation was the 

 subject of official action in early colonial times, and 

 that in 1831 Congress passed a law, futile but sig- 

 nificant historically, which forbade lumbering in 

 public lands. 



In 1849 tne Commissioner of Patents issued 

 what appears to be the first warning from adminis- 

 trative sources of a disappearing forest. In 1855, 

 the Interior Department ordered that all lumber cut 

 on public lands should be seized and sold. Between 

 1860 and 1872 other warnings followed from official 

 sources, and there was much discussion of forestry 

 throughout the country; this found its reflection in 

 Congress. Bitter complaints from forest Congress- 

 men about the government's "illegal interference" 

 with lumbering on federal lands provoked counter 

 charges of waste and spoliation. Senator Cole of 

 California introduced a bill for lumber culture as 

 early as 1867. Senator Ross of Kansas followed 

 with others. Many forest conservation bills of many 

 kinds, offered during this period, failed of considera- 

 tion. In 1870 the first inventory was made of forest 

 lands, which were then estimated at 39 per cent of 

 the total area of the country. 



The first special appropriation for forest pro- 



