Forestry in the States.— There were many early laws on the statute books of various States aiming at fire protection or the encour agement of tree planting. Permanent State forestry work of importance was not begun, however, until 1885, when New York established a forest commission charged with the organi zation of a service under technically trained men to administer the State's forest reserve according to the principles of forestry. In the same year there were organized a Forestry Bureau in Ohio and a State Board of Forestry in California, and a forest commissioner was appointed in Colorado; after a brief period, however, and until they were reorganized, in Ohio and California in 1905 and in Colorado in 1911, all these were either discontinued or became inactive through lack of appropriations. In 1895 a commissioner of forestry was ap pointed in Pennsylvania. Except in New York and Pennsylvania the entrance of the States into the forestry field with permanent organiza tion has been the direct outgrowth of the work of the National government. At the present time 32 of the States have forest departments, 24 employ professional foresters, and practically all have recognized the need of a State forest policy. The appropriations for the yearly sup of of State forestry departments vary from to approximately $315,000. Some of the objects of State work have been to educate pub lic sentiment regarding the value of State for est resources and the importance of their con servation, to give technical advice to private owners, to develop a systematic fire protective system, to provide planting stock for citizens, to secure the modification of tax systems so as to lessen the burdens of those who plant forests or otherwise endeavor to provide a permanent timber supply, and to establish State forests. The northeastern States have paid most atten tion apparently to the production of a new for est crop and have encouraged the practice of forestry by private owners to that end. Plant ing material has been provided, tax laws have been modified in several States, and technically trained foresters employed to give advice to ap plicants. Fire protection has also been supplied by State action, special attention being given to the protection of young growth. In the far West, the chief interest has been in protecting the vast supplies of mature timber from fire. Fire protection has had first place in the Lake States also, but here more attention is given to young timber than in the West. The South has been comparatively slow in adopting State for estry, though Maryland and North Carolina were among the first to have State foresters. The Weeks Law has greatly stimulated the or ganization of systematic State fire protective systems. Under this law the Federal govern ment, through the Forest Service, co-operates with individual States in the protection of the watersheds of navigable streams. The Federal government contributes not more than half the cost (nor more than $8,000 in one year) of a State fire protective system established under this law. The government funds are used al most exclusively for the employment of look outs and patrols. An area of about 13,000,000 acres is guarded at an average cost of about three-fourths of a cent an acre. Twenty-one States have entered into co-operative agree ments with the government as follows: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Con necticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. New York maintains a State Preserve of 1,825,882 acres in the Adirondack and Catskill moun tains; Pennsylvania has more than 1,000,000 acres of State forest, chiefly in the mountains of the central part of the State; Minnesota has 43,000 acres now in State forests and approxi mately 1,000,000 acres of school lands which are to be made into State school forests; Wisconsin has a reserve of 400,000 acres ; Michigan, 589, 000 acres ; South Dakota, 75,000 acres (in the Black Hills) ; • New Jersey, 13,720 acres; and New Hampshire. Vermont, California Connec ticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Maryland, from 2,000 to 9,000 acres each. The New York "Forest Preserve° is protected from fire, but it is not under forest management because the State Constitution forbids timber cutting on the reservation. The whole central portion of the Adirondack and Catskill mountain regions is protected from fire by a State ranger system. In Pennsylvania the State forests are under forest management, and the State maintains a ranger school at Mont Alto. The following States distribute planting material: Pennsyl vania, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Con necticut, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho. In New York citizens are furnished
tree seedlings from the State nurseries at cost. Taxes on timbered land may be levied chiefly on yield in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
Towns, cities, and counties, as well as the States, have begun to take an interest in for estry. In many cases it amounts to no more than the employment of a municipal forester whose business is the planting and care of street, road side, and park trees. A number of them, chiefly in the older and more thickly settled portions of the country, have acquired forested tracts which they now manage for the protection of the com munity reservoirs or some other local purpose. There are over 130,000 acres of such forests in the United States, in tracts varying in extent from 40 to 25,000 acres.
Forestry by Private The first example of professional forest management in the United States was begun in 1891 on the Biltmore Estate of Mr. G. W. Vanderbilt of Asheville, N. C., in a mixed forest of pine and hardwoods. To be sure, a large number of private owners had exercised care in handling their timberlands prior to this date. In some cases it was merely protection from fire; in other cases there was a rather crude selection of the trees to be cut, or grazing was restricted, or attempts were made to protect the young growth in logging. The Biltmore Estate, how ever, was the first to be managed in accordance with the principles of forestry. The work done on the estate was in the nature of an experi ment to determine whether the introduction of forestry was practicable under the conditions obtaining in the lumber trade in the United States. The area under management was in creased from the original 3,600 acres to 130,000 acres. Even in the first year, the forest work paid for itself and has been conducted success fully ever since. Most of this forest land has now been purchased by the government and is to become part of the national forest areas being established in the East. In general, the private owner of timberland has confined his efforts to fire protection, which is usually ac complished by means of associations such as have already been mentioned and by co-opera tion with the State and Federal governments. A number of private owners have practiced forest management profitably, however, since the Biltmore experiment. Conspicuous among these are wood pulp and paper manufacturers, who largely own the forests from which they get their logs. Because of the large investment in their mills and the impossibility of moving them to where there are new supplies of timber, these men are in many cases taking care of the young growth and limiting the cut to what the forests grow each year, thus insuring a perma nent sustained yield. Of course, they also guard against fire, for that is the prerequisite to any successful forest management. The practice of forestry by pulp and paper com panies is largely localized in New England and the Adirondacks. On several tracts in New Hampshire, Michigan, and New York, and on the forest lands of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., forest management for the production of salable timber • has proved suc cessful. Abandoned farms in New England are often planted in timber and allowed to grow up from seed supplied by neighboring forests and are protected from fire and cut in short rotation for various uses. Several rail roads are managing their forest properties for the production of a sustained yield of cross ties. Many lumber companies are now employ ing technically trained foresters as a part of their woods force. This does not mean, of course, that they practice forestry; but it does indicate that the value to the lumberman of a technical knowledge and training is recognized. A large number of farmers and other small woodlot owners are now taking an interest in the proper cutting, protection, and reproduction of their timber; and in some of the States a part of the duty of the State forester is to assist farmers in the management of their woodlots. In the eastern States and the central hard wood region the woodlots are especially im portant. In the southern pine region and in the Douglas fir region of the Pacific North west fire protection is receiving more and more attention. In both of these regions second growth timber is now being cut. On the whole, the practice of forestry by private owners is increasing but has become nationally important only in one branch—fire protection.