8 GOVERNMENT FOREST WORK. 



first aim of the Forest Service has been to protect 

 their resources so that they will always be there to 

 use, and at the same time to see to it that the greatest 

 number of people have an equal chance to use them. 



Purchase of Eastern National 

 Forests. 



Long before the creation of National Forests began, 

 virtually all the unreserved public lands in the States 

 east of the Mississippi had been taken up. Under the 

 provisions of an act of March 1, 1911 (the so-called 

 Weeks law), Congress inaugurated the purchase of 

 mountain lands from private owners in the Appala- 

 chian and White Mountain regions of the East. In 

 the decade since this law was passed nearly 2,000.000 

 acres of spruce and hardwood forest in the Eastern 

 States have been acquired or approved for purchase, 

 out of a total of more than 50.000,000 acres of this 

 class of timberland upon which the eastern industries 

 have been dependent for their supply. The National 

 Forest Reservation Commission, established by this 

 act, consisting of the Secretary of War, the Secretary 

 of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, two 

 Members of the Senate, and two Members of the House 

 of Representatives, authorizes the purchase of all 

 lands acquired under this act. As the Government 

 obtains title the Forests are put under systematic 

 management with the object of improving their regu- 

 lative effect upon stream flow and of increasing the 

 supply of forest products. 



The timber alone on the eastern National Forests 

 has a present value greater than the entire cost to the 

 Government of acquiring these lands, with their tim- 

 ber; and the revenue derived from these Forests has 

 been rapidly increasing until, in 1920. they had be- 



