4 GOVERNMENT FOREST WORK. 



National Forests and their resources may be obtained 

 by applying to any Forest officer or to the Forest 

 Service, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Beginning of Government Forest 

 Work. 



Though the National Forests represent the greatest 

 single activity of the Government in forestry, Gov- 

 ernment forest work had its real beginning as far 

 back as 1876, with the appointment by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture of a special agent to study gen- 

 eral forest conditions in the United States. In 1881 

 a Division of Forestry was created in the department, 

 but for a long time it received an annual appropria- 

 tion of less than $30,000, and could be little more 

 than a bureau of information and advice. From this 

 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 1922 of nearly 

 $7,000,000, including $300,000 for fire fighting and 

 $400,000 for cooperative fire protection. 



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 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 



