OUR FORESTS 29 
either bounties or tax exemption were passed between 1868 and 1872 
in Connecticut, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, 
Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Nevada. In fact, most of the Eastern 
States gave early legislative attention to their forest resources. 
As early as 1872, New York created a commission to consider 
ownership of the “wild lands lying northward of the Mohawk,” and 
the definite building up of the present Adirondack and Catskill forest 
preserves dates from 1885. When Colorado became a State in 1876, 
its constitution provided that the general assembly enact laws to 
preserve the forests upon the State’s lands. California created a 
State board of forestry in 1885. A number of other States estab- 
lished forestry bureaus or commissions in the eighties. 
Today, 43 States have well-established forestry departments which 
carry on activities similar to those of the Federal Government. The 
States own in the aggregate almost 19,000,000 acres of forest land, 
and most of them maintain State forests or parks. Some have forest 
nurseries, Where trees are grown from seed for forest planting 
and for planting along roadsides. One of the most important 
projects of State forestry administration, of course, is the suppres- 
sion of fire. Many States have therefore developed excellent systems 
of forest-fire prevention and control. State forestry departments 
give farmers and other private forest owners advice and assistance in 
the handling of their timberlands. They also extend cooperation to 
schools, clubs, and other associations interested in the spreading of 
forestry education. Forty States and Puerto Rico have adopted laws 
providing for some form of forest study in the public schools. In 11 
of these States and Puerto Rico the forest laws provide that forest 
study be a part of the regular school curriculum in the primary or 
advanced schools, or both. Courses in forestry are also given at 
many of the State agricultural colleges. 
Forty States and Puerto Rico have extension foresters. These 
forestry specialists are in most cases attached to the extension de- 
partments of the agricultural colleges and work with the county 
agricultural agents and farmers in much the same way as do the 
extension specialists in other lines of agriculture. Forestry informa- 
tion and advice can therefore be obtained in nearly every State, 
either from the extension forester or the State forestry department. 
The passage of the Clarke-McNary Act gave an added impetus 
to State forestry work, and many States are now cooperating with 
the Forest Service under this law. Forty-one States and Hawaii 
have cooperative protective systems for the prevention and sup- 
pression of forest fires, and 40 States, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii 
are growing and distributing planting stock, with the cooperation 
of the Federal Government, for the purpose of establishing field 
windbreaks and farm woodlands upon denuded or nonforested 
lands. : 
Farm FORESTRY 
About one-third of the forest land in the United States is con- 
tained in farm woodlands. These are mostly small and frequently 
isolated, and 95 percent of them lie east of the Great Plains. Be- 
cause they comprise some of the best forest lands, their productive 
capacity probably averages as high as that of any class of timber- 
land in the country. 
