Early American forest history is a record of federal aggressiveness. The seventies and eighties were marked by the hue and cry of a few far-seeing conservationalists, directed principally at the federal Congress; the ninties witnessed the enactment of basic forestry legislation; and the first decade of the twentieth century saw, under the ardent conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt, the thorough intrenchment of a virile federal forestry organization. Surely, it would be surprising to the present day student of forestry had its history been otherwise.