orest reserve, the Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve, was
created by special proclamation of President Harrison. Later it
became part of the National Park reserves. Although the Division
of Forestry had no special powers to oversee and direct the
management of the forest reserves, during the next six years a
total of 40,000,000 acres of valuable timberland were so
designated and set aside. At the request of the Secretary of the
Interior, the National Academy of Sciences therefore worked out a
basis for laws governing national forests. Congress enacted this
law in 1897. Thereafter the Department of the Interior had active
charge of the timberlands. At that time little was known
scientifically about the American forests. There were no
schools of forestry in this country. During the period 1898-1903,
several such schools were established.

President McKinley, during his term of office, increased the
number of forest reserves from 28 to over 40, covering a total
area of 30,000,000 acres. President Roosevelt added many millions
of acres to the forest reserves, bringing the net total to more
than 150,000,000 acres, including 159 different forests. In 1905,
the administration of the forest reserves was transferred from
the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture,
and their name changed to National Forests. No great additions to
the government timberlands have been made since that time. Small,
valuable areas have been added. Other undesirable tracts have
been cut off from the original reserves.

The growth of the Division of Forestry, now the United States
Forest Service, has been very remarkable since 1898, when it
consisted of only a few scientific workers and clerks. At
present it employs more than 2,600 workers, which number is
increased during the dangerous fire season to from 4,000 to 5,000
employees. The annual appropriations have been increased from
$28,500 to approximately $6,500,000. The annual income from Uncle
Sam's woodlands is also on the gain and now amounts to about
$5,000,000 yearly. This income results largely from the sale of
timber and the grazing of livestock on the National Forests.

CHAPTER IX

OUR NATIONAL FORESTS

Our National Forests include 147 distinct and separate bodies of
timber in twenty-seven different states and in Alaska and Porto
Rico. They cover more than 156,000,000 acres. If they could be
massed together in one huge area like the state of Texas, it
wo