4 Circular 211, Dept. of Agriculture 



than a bureau of information and advice. From thi \ 

 small beginning, as its field of work expanded, the 

 division grew (1901) into the Bureau of Forestry, 

 and finally (1905) into the Forest Service, with an 

 appropriation for the fiscal year 1924 of nearly $8,- 

 000,000, including $305,000 for the suppression of fires 

 and other destructive agencies and $400,000 for coop-^ 

 erative fire protection. r 



To-day the forest work of the Government is mainly 

 centered in the Forest Service, which, in addition to 

 administering and protecting the national forests, 

 studies a great number of general forest problems and 

 diffuses information regarding forestry. 



The Government does other forest work, however, 

 besides that of the Forest Service. The Department 

 of the Interior, through its Office of Indian Affairs 

 and its National Park Service, administers the forests 

 on the Indian reservations and the national parks. The ' 

 Office of Forest Pathology of the Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry, in the Department of Agriculture, studies the 

 diseases of trees, and the branch of insect investiga- 

 tions in the Bureau of Entomology of the same depart- 

 ment seeks means for controlling the insect enemies of 

 forests. 



CREATION OF NATIONAL FORESTS FROM 

 PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE WEST 



In spite of the evidence of earlier recognition of the 

 need for a national forestry movement, until about 33 

 years ago the forests on the public domain seemed in 

 a fair way to be destroyed eventually by fire and 

 reckless cutting. Nothing was being done to protect 

 them, or even to use them in the right way. They 

 were simply left to burn, or else to pass by means of 

 one or another of the land laws into the hands of pri- 

 vate owners whose interest in most cases impelled" 

 them to take from the land what they could get 

 easily and move on. 



Had this destruction gone on unchecked, there would 

 in the end have been little timber left in the West, 



