A Brief History of Forestry. / In Europe, the United States and Other Countries

by B. E. Fernow

Another unquestionably most influential, official report was that upon “Forests and Forestry in Germany,” by Dr. John A. Warder, United States Commissioner to the World’s Fair at Vienna in 1873. Dr. Warder set forth clearly and correctly the methods employed abroad in the use of forests, and became himself one of the most prominent propagandists for their adoption in his own country.

About the same time appeared the classical work of George B. Marsh, our minister to Italy, “The Earth as Modified by Human Action,” in which the evil effects on cultural conditions of forest destruction were ably and forcibly pointed out.

Among these earlier publications designed to arouse public attention to the subject, should also be mentioned General C. C. Andrews’ report on ‘Forestry in Sweden,’ published by the State Department in 1872.

The Census of 1870 attempted for the first time a canvas of our forest resources under Prof. F. W. Brewer, as a result of which the relative smallness of our forest area became known.

All these publications had their influence in educating a larger number to a conception and consideration of the importance of the subject, so that, when, in 1873, the committee on forestry of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was formed and presented a memorial to Congress, pointing out “the importance of promoting the cultivation of timber and the preservation of forests, and recommending the appointment of a commission of forestry to report to Congress,” there already existed an intelligent audience, and although a considerable amount of lethargy and lack of interest was exhibited, Congress could be persuaded, in 1876, to establish an agency in the United States Department of Agriculture, out of which grew later the Division of Forestry, a bureau of information on forestry matters. Dr. Franklin B. Hough, one of the signers of the memorial, was appointed to the agency. It is to be noted as characteristic of much American legislation, that this agency was secured only as a “rider” to an appropriation for the distribution of seed.

While these were the beginnings of an official recognition of the subject by the federal government, private enterprise and the separate States also started about the same time to forward the movement. In 1867, the agricultural and horticultural societies of Wisconsin were invited by the legislature to appoint a committee to report on the disastrous effects of forest destruction. In 1869, the Maine Board of Agriculture appointed a committee to report on a forest policy for the State, leading to the act of 1872 “for the encouragement of the growth of trees, exempting from taxation for twenty years lands planted to trees, which law, as far as we know, remained without result. About the same time a real wave of enthusiasm regarding the planting of timber seems to have pervaded the country, and especially the Western prairie States. In addition to laws regarding the planting of trees on highways, laws for the encouragement of timber planting, either under bounty or exemption from taxation, were passed in Iowa, Kansas and Wisconsin in 1868; in Nebraska and New York in 1869; in Missouri in 1870; in Minnesota in 1871; in Iowa in 1872; in Nevada in 1873; in Illinois in 1874; in Dakota and Connecticut in 1875; and finally the federal government joined in this kind of legislation by the so-called timber-culture acts of 1873 and 1874, amended in 1876 and 1877.

For the most part these laws remained a dead letter, excepting in the case of the federal government offer. The encouragement by release from taxes was not much of an inducement; nor does the bounty provision seem to have had greater success, except in taking money out of the treasuries. Finally, these laws were in many or most cases repealed.

The timber-culture act was passed by Congress on March 3, 1873, by which the planting of timber on 40 acres of land (or a proportionate area) in the treeless territory, conferred the title to 160 acres (or a proportionate amount) of the public domain. This law had not been in existence ten years when its repeal was demanded, and this was finally secured in 1891, the reason being that, partly owing to the crude provisions of the law, and partly to the lack of proper supervision, it had been abused, and had given rise to much fraud in obtaining title to lands under false pretenses. It is difficult to say how much impetus the law gave to bonafide forest planting, and how much timber growth has resulted from it. Unfavorable climate, lack of satisfactory plant material, and lack of knowledge as to the proper methods, led to many failures.

A number of railroad companies, opening up the prairie States, planted at this time groves along the right of way for the sake of demonstrating the practicability of securing forest growth on the treeless prairies and plains.

There was also considerable planting of wind-breaks and groves on homesteads, which was attended with better results. Altogether, however, the amount of tree planting, even in the prairies and plains, was infinitesimal, if compared with what is necessary for climatic amelioration; and it may be admitted, now as well as later, that the reforestation of the plains must be a matter of co-operative, if not of national, enterprise.