388 The National Geographic Magazine 



4, 1897, gave the Secretary of the In- 

 terior authority to protect the reserves 

 and make them useful. The passage of 

 this law was the first step toward a na- 

 tional forest service. The second step 

 was the act of Congress, approved Feb- 

 ruary 1, 1905, which transferred the 

 control of the national forest reserves 

 from the Department of the Interior to 

 the Department of Agriculture. This 

 act consolidated the government's forest 

 work, which had been divided between 

 the General Land Office and the Bureau 

 of Forestry, and secured for the reserves 

 the supervision of trained foresters. 



President McKinley, and after him 

 President Roosevelt, continued to make 

 forest reserves. The latter introduced a 

 system of examining the proposed forest 

 reserves, so that now their boundaries 

 are better located than ever before. 

 Under him great progress has been made 

 by the government in bringing about the 

 practice of forestry by forest owners and 

 in awakening the great lumber interests, 

 as well as the people in general, to the 

 dangers of forest destruction. 



USE OF FOREST RESERVES 



The forest reserves lie chiefly in high 

 mountain regions. They are 62 in num- 

 ber, and cover an area (January 1 , 1905) 

 of 63,308,319 acres. They are useful, 

 first of all, to protect the drainage basins 

 of streams used for irrigation, and espe- 

 cially the watersheds of the great irriga- 

 tion works which the government is con- 

 structing under the reclamation law, 

 which was passed in 1 902 . This is their 

 most important use. Secondly, they 

 supply grass and other forage for many 



thousands of grazing animals during the 

 summer, when the lower ranges on the 

 plains and deserts are barren and dry. 

 Lastly, they furnish a permanent supply 

 of wood for the use of settlers, miners, 

 lumbermen, and other citizens. This is 

 at present the least important use of the 

 reserves, but it will be of greater conse- 

 quence hereafter. The best way for the 

 government to promote each of these 

 three great uses is to protect the forest 

 reserves from fire. The forest service 

 plans to add a trained forester to the 

 executive force of each forest reserve to 

 introduce practical forestry on all re- 

 serves. 



STATE FORESTRY 



Many of the states have taken great 

 and effective interest in forestry. Among 

 those which have made most progress 

 are New York and Pennsylvania. New 

 York has a state forest preserve of 

 1,436,686 acres, and Pennsylvania one 

 of 700,000. Michigan, Minnesota, and 

 other states are following their example. 



In 1892 the first example of system- 

 atic forestry in the United States was 

 begun at Biltmore, in North Carolina. 

 It is still in successful operation. 



The first professional foresters in the 

 United States were obliged to go abroad 

 for their training, but in 1898 profes- 

 sional forest schools were established at 

 Cornell University, in New York, and at 

 Biltmore, in North Carolina, and they 

 were followed by the Yale Forest School 

 in 1900. Others have sprung up since. 

 At present thorough and efficient train- 

 ing in professional forestry can be had 

 in the United States. 



