6 CIR. 211, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
remaining timber on the public domain from destruc- 
tion and to insure a regular flow of water in the 
streams. (Fig. 1.) The first forest reserve—the 
Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve—was created 
by President Harrison that same year, and later 
Presidents have created others, until at present there 
are 151 national forests with a total net area of over 
160,000,000 acres. Within the forest boundaries are 
also some 24,000,000 acres in private ownership, con- 
sisting of lands granted or taken up for one purpose 
or ancther before the forests were created or of forest 
homesteads and mining claims patented since. 
The law of 1891 provided that national forests may 
be set aside from public iands covered wholly or in 
part with timber or undergrowth. Later laws have ~— 
prohibited the enlargement of the forests or the crea- 
tion of new forests in the States of Colorado, Wyo- 
ming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, 
Arizona, and New Mexico, through additions from the 
public lands, except by act of Congress. Some na-— s 
tional forests are heavily timbered and are mainly for 
timber production ; others are located in thinly wooded 
regions primarily to protect and conserve the water 
supply, without which the country would be uwunin- 
habitable. 
The original act made no provision for administer- 
ing the reserves, and the withdrawal of land involved 
from all forms of settlement met with vigorous disap- 
proval, especially in the West, where the reserves 
were situated. These defects, however, were largely 
removed by Congress on June 4, 1897, in a law out- 
lining a system of organization and management for 
the reserves and placing their administration under 
the Secretary of the Interior. The American ndational- 
forest system really dates from the passage of that 
act. 
Government administration of the reserves soon 
made apparent the necessity for scientific forestry to 
make their use general. It was the duty of the Sec- 
retary cf the Interior to prescribe regulations which 
wou!d insure the fulfillment of the objects aimed at 
