370 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



In 1708, the provincial assembly of New 

 Hampshire forbade the cutting of mast trees on 

 ungranted lands under a penalty of ;£ioo, and 

 at that early time the province had a surveyor- 

 general of forests, appointed by royal authority, 

 for the purpose of preventing depredations upon 

 the timber. C No doubt this early regard to the 

 timber supplies in the face of plenty came largely 

 through the momentum of education, suggested 

 by the usages and methods of the mother coun- 

 tries, where forest protection had already become 

 an established policy, and even forestry practices 

 existed!N 



A century later, real want seems to have ap- 

 peared, or at least anticipation of it. For, in 179S, 

 the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, 

 and Manufactures published a report on the best 

 mode of preserving and increasing growth of tim- 

 bers, an outcome of an inquiry by circular letter 

 issued in 1791 ; and in 1804, the Massachusetts 

 Society for the Promotion of Agriculture offered 

 prizes for successful forest plantations ; while 

 the federal government, between the years 1799 

 and 1 83 1, appropriated money for the purchase 

 and passed legislation for the protection of hve- 

 oak timber, suitable for navy purposes, under 

 which acts it acquired some 250,000 acres in Ala- 

 bama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, — not 

 as a matter of general forest policy, but to secure 

 sufficient supplies of a special material, restricted 



