TREES AND FORESTRY 35 



sentiment for united effort in two directions: (1) conservation of remaining 

 forests so that they will be made to yield a product without exhaustion to 

 themselves; (2) reforestation of the heads of watercourses. 



CONSERVATION OF EXISTING FORESTS 



ALONG step was taken toward the conservation of forests when an 

 act of Congress of March 3, 1891, authorized the President of 

 the United States to set aside from time to time pieces of woodland 

 for the benefit of the American people. Such reserves (Fig. 29), covering 

 an aggregate of about 196,000,000 acres have been made by Presidents 

 Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft, and on February 1, 

 1905, the administration of th'se reserves was transferred to the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, so that they are now under the care of experts 

 in forestry. That the formation of national reserves is not a sufficient 

 action, that the saving of the forests of the country still depends directly on 

 individual and corporation owners rather than upon the nation, is seen by a 

 comparison of acreage: the total extent of the reserves is one-third of the farm 

 woodland of the country; it is insignificant when listed beside the millions 

 upon millions of acres owned by railroads and by leaders in forest industries. 

 The work in conservation must be brought about by a cooperation that 

 will result in legislation to bind the Nation, the States, all corporations and 

 individuals. A move in the right direction was made when the Maine 

 Supreme Court decided (March 10, 1908) that a state had the right to 

 restrict the cutting of trees on private land, if the welfare of the general 

 public was endangered by such cutting; also when Louisiana brought 

 before the legislature a similar law, even more definite in its restrictions. 

 By far the most important event in the movement in 1908 was the meeting 

 of the Governors' Conference in May, followed by the joint Conservation 

 Conference in December. Results cannot be obtained except through a 

 union of the States; 1 the forests in Wyoming must be conserved to give 



i The Weeks Bill- 

 To enable any state to cooperate with any other state or states, or with the United 

 States for the pretention of the watersheds of navigable streams, and to appoint 

 a commission for the acquisition of lands for the purpose of conserving the naviga- 

 bility of navigable rivers. 

 This bill, the product of the combined study of some of the ablest men in Congress, is a. 

 general conservation bill for the creation of national forests. The immediate interest, however, 

 lies in the Appalachian and White Mountain regions controlling the watersheds of the most 

 important rivers of the East and the South and containing a great part of the timber supply. 

 The question of reserves for the East has been under discussion for ten years. The 

 Weeks Bill itself has previously passed the Senate three times and the House once. In the 

 sixty-first Congress it again passed the House. June 24, 1910; it was filibustered in the Senate, 

 however, so that Congress adjourned without a passage of the bill. The W T eeks Bill is 

 scheduled to come up for Senate vote on February 15, 1911. 



