702 THE HISTORY OF FORESTRY IN AMERICA W. N. S PARU A WK The history of forestry in the United dant and free for the taking. The for- States can be divided into five periods. ests harbored Indians and wild beasts The first, the colonial period ending and encumbered the ground needed for in 1776, was characterized by a grad- crops and pastures. So,the pioneers, in ual pushing back of the forests to make the words of Gififord Pinchot, "came room for settlement, nearly all east of to feel that the thing to do with the for- the Allegheny-Appalachian Range. est was to get rid of it." The second period, from 1776 to the Local wood shortages sometimes beginning of forestry work in the Fed- arose near the larger towns despite the eral Department of Agriculture, lasted abundant supplies, because transporta- just 100 years. This was a period of tion facilities were poor. This occasion- forest exploitation, gradual at first, but ally led to restrictions on cutting, until rapidly increasing after about 1850. the timber farther back could be open- The following 21 years, also a period ed up. Timber export from New Eng- of accelerated exploitation, was marked land began with or before the first set- by the campaign of public education tlement—masts and hand-made staves, and propaganda that finally led to the clapboards, and shingles at first, and establishment of a forestry policy for later sawn lumber, staves, and ship tim- Government timberlands in 1897. bers. These commodities formed the From 1897 to 1919 was the period of basis of a thriving trade with the West development of the national forest sys- Indies and with Europe. The English tem and the establishment of a forestry Government, anxious to insure a sup- profession. The movement for conser- ply of masts for the Royal Navy and to vation of natural resources in general prevent other countries from getting also took shape early in this period. them, attempted to reserve all white Finally, the period since 1919 has pine trees that were suitable for masts, been marked by an increasing emphasis but succeeded only in arousing the re- on private forestry, both in legislation sentment of the colonists. These and and in the policies of the forest-land similar ordinances and regulations were owners themselves. essentially police measures for the pro- Several salients stand out in the story tection of town and crown property, of how forestry and the country grew and had nothing to do with forestry. up from a spoiled, wasteful childhood Perhaps the best-known attempt at to rational adulthood. In its broad forest conservation during the colonial outline, forestry in the United States is period was William Penn's provision, evolving in much the same way as it in 1681 or 1682, that an acre should be did in Europe, but much faster. For- maintained in forest for every ñve estry in America has not caught up cleared in lands granted by him. So far with forestry in the more advanced as known, this provision was not long European countries, but we have come enforced. a long way in our brief period as a Nation, and the progress wc have made IN THE FIRST CENTURY of independ- came not from slavishly copying the ence, settlement spread over most of European pattern; American forestry, the country. Transcontinental railroads as it grows to maturity, tends more and were built. Wooden ships were on their more to become indigenous. last voyages. The westward migration had already caused the abandonment DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD, wood of many farms in the Northeast and the was a necessity, but it was overabun- Southeast. Most of the old-growth The History of Forestry in America 703 white pine of New England had been prevent depredations and preserve live cut; that in New York and Pennsyl- oak stands. Besides the small areas vania was going fast. Pine production bought in Georgia, some 244,000 acres in the Lake States was approaching its was reserved in the Gulf States. Mean- peak. It was still the favored species for while, stealing of timber from the lumber, for the sawmill output of white reservations and other public lands pine exceeded that of all other species went on unchecked, and the Govern- combined. ment continued to sell oak timberland At the beginning of the nineteenth at $1.25 an acre and buy stolen oak century^ concern was felt over local timber for $1.50 a cubic foot. The shortages of firewood and other timber Louisiana reservations were canceled near the cities and over the supply of in 1888. ship timbers. In 1791 the Philadelphia In 1831 Congress prohibited cutting Society for the Promotion of Agricul- live oak and other trees on naval reser- ture offered medals for planting locust vations or any other lands belonging for posts and treenails. The Massachu- to the United States. Although sel- setts Society offered premiums for dom enforced, the act remained for growing trees, in 1804. The New York almost 60 years the basic and only law Society named a committee to study aimed at protecting the timber on Gov- the "best mode of preserving and in- ernment lands. The Commissioner of creasing the growth of timber." That the General Land Office attempted to or another committee, in a report in enforce the law in 1851, but was dis- 1795, recommended that inferior agri- missed for doing so. Carl Schurz tried cultural land be dcîvoted to trees. In again when he was Secretary of the 1817 the Massachusetts Legislature Interior, but was stopped by Congress asked its State Department of Agricul- in 1880. ture to encourage the growing of oaks After the Civil War, citizens began for ship timbers; in 1837 it authorized to take more interest in forests ; earlier a survey of forest conditions in the they generally were indifferent to them. State, with the idea that the findings The heavy requirements for wood dur- might induce landowners to consider ing the war and the extensive destruc- the importance of "continuing, im- tion in some areas by military opera- proving, and enlarging the forests of tions, the rapid pace of lumbering in the State." the Lake States and the widespread de- In 1799, the Congress, heeding John struction by forest fires, the growing Jay's warning that ship timbers and realization of the relation of forests to masts would become scarce unless steps stream flow and water supplies—all were taken to prevent waste and pre- caused people to think about future serve the existing supplies, authorized timber supplies and the importance of President Adams to spend $200,000 to forest cover. buy reserves of live oak on the South A paper by the Reverend Frederick Carolina and Georgia coasts. That was Starr, in the report of the Department probably the first appropriation by the of Agriculture for 1865, is said to have Federal Government for acquisition of had great influence on the forestry timberland. movement. He predicted a timber fam- It was followed several years later ine within 30 years and advocated the by acts authorizing the President to immediate undertaking of carefully reserve public lands bearing live oak planned research on hovv to manage and cedar in Florida, Alabama, and forests and how to establish planta- Louisiana; to purchase similar lands; tions. The research, he maintained, to conduct experiments in the planting should be done by a Government-en- and cultivation of live oak (probably dowed private corporation in order to the first Federal forestry research) ; avoid the evils of the spoils system, and to take appropriate measures to frequent changes in personnel, and 704 Yearboo\ of Agriculture 1949 general corruption in the Government. acres of planted trees. B. E. Fernow, in That, more than likely^ was the start his History of Forestry^ suggested that of the movement for better forest Arbor Days may have retarded real management. forestry by centering attention on What may have been the first State planting, to the exclusion of the proper commission appointed to inquire into use of existing forests, and by intro- the forest situation and recommend a ducing poetry and emotional appeal forestry poHcy for the State was set up instead of practical economic consid- at the request of the Wisconsin Legis- erations. lature in 1867. The resulting report, The first systematic effort to arouse by I. A. Lapham, failed to emphasize public interest in the preservation and the need for sustained-yield manage- conservative use of the natural forest ment of the existing forests and over- areas— as distinct from planting of stressed the need for planting, but artificial forests—was instigated by demonstrated clearly the relation of Franklin B. Hough's address before forests to stream flow. No action was the American Association for the taken on the report. Advancement of Science in 1873. Maine appointed a commission on The speech led the Association to forestry policy in 1869, but the result send to Congress and to the State leg- was some relatively unimportant laws. islatures, in 1874, a memorial that A New York commission set up in said: 1872 investigated the question of pre- '"The preservation and growth of serving the Adirondack forest for its timber is a subject of great practical effect on the Hudson and other rivers importance to the people of the United and the Erie Canal. No action was States, and is becoming every year of taken at that time. more and more consequence, from the From 1868 on, tree planting caught increasing demand for its use; and the public attention and interest.