STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 107 



point a commission of inquiry into forest destruc- 

 tion, but it failed. The next year Representative 

 Dunnell of Minnesota introduced a similar bill which 

 failed, but he hung a rider on the seed distribution 

 bill which of course passed. Thus was an appropri- 

 ation of $2,000 secured for a report, and the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture appointed F. B. Hough of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence to undertake the work. Two years later Rep- 

 resentative Dunnell got another $2,000 to finish the 

 report, and, when completed, Congress appropriated 

 $25,000 for printing and distribution. 



The cause of forest protection was now at least 

 formally launched. The first popular forestry or- 

 ganizations followed. The American Forestry As- 

 sociation was started in Philadelphia in the year of 

 the Centennial, 1876, and a state association fol- 

 lowed in Minnesota. But it was not until 1882 that 

 forestry became a popular movement. Then the 

 American Forestry Association, which had lan- 

 guished meantime, was recognized as a vital influ- 

 ence following a notable Forestry Congress in Cin- 

 cinnati. State organizations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, 

 Maine, Texas, Florida, New York and elsewhere 

 followed during the next few years. Quickened by 

 popular interest, forest conservation sentiment made 

 headway in Congress. Local and sectional grab- 

 bing no longer had an undisputed field. 



The earliest official herald of the future direc- 

 tion of forest conservation was a bill by Represen- 



