Report of the Forest Commission, 207 



badly damaged and made unsightly by fire, the mountain forest was 

 capable of recovering lost ground readily. A plan for the acquisition 

 of these mountain forests by corporate bodies of visitors to the region 

 was warmly discussed, while ownership by the State of at least the 

 alpine region was favored by others. 



Publications. 



The proceedings of these three meetings, which were briefly pub- 

 lished as usual in the organ of the association, Forest Leaves, will 

 form the subject-matter of the 11th volume of proceedings. 



The 10th volume, long delayed, but going now through the press, 

 published in parts, two of which have been issued, will contain all the 

 accumulated material from the last three annual meetings and the 

 World's Fair congress. 



It is expected that in future the proceedings will be published regu- 

 larly, and with this policy in view it was decided to number the vol- 

 umes of previous publications, although this was not done at the time 

 of their publication. 



With the exception of a few copies of volumes VII and VIII, con- 

 taining the proceedings of the meetings at Atlanta and Quebec and 

 annual meetings in 1889 and 1890, the issues of former volumes are 

 exhausted by free distribution to applicants. It is proposed in the 

 future to charge a uniform price of $1 per volume, restricting the free 

 list to institutions of a public character and to exchanges. 



Legislation. 



The most important advance which the association may note as a 

 direct outcome of its own efforts is the passage of H. R. 119, known as 

 the McRae bill. It was passed by the Hou«e of Representatives on 

 Monday, December 17, with a vote of 159 to 53. 



The special thanks of the association for this result are due to our 

 fellow member, the Hon. Thomas C. McRae, through whose skillful, 

 persistent and energetic parliamentary management the passage of the 

 bill was secured. To be sure, this passage could he effected only by 

 concessions to the wishes of representatives from the western States in 

 the way of amendments. These amendments consist in confining the 

 effect of the bill to forest reservations alone, striking out provisions 

 which had in view a rational administration of the rest of public timber 

 lands; also restricting on the one hand the Secretary of the Interior in 

 the sale of timber to dead and such mature trees as must be removed 

 for the sake of maintaining proper forest conditions — an ambiguous 



