GOVERNMENT FOREST WORK. 5 



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 30 

 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, 

 either to burn or to cut, and the development of the 

 country, which calls for timber not only at certain 

 times but all the time, would have been retarded or 

 stopped altogether. 



More than this, the destruction of the forest cover 

 on the watersheds supplying hundreds of streams 

 which rise in the western mountains would have had 

 its certain effect on stream flow — low water or no 

 water at all during the long dry periods, and destruc- 

 tive floods after heavy rains. This, of course, would 

 have meant disaster to the systems of irrigation by 

 which thousands of farmers raise their crops. It 

 would also have very seriously hampered, and in many 

 cases prevented, hydroelectric power development. 



