528 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



tion by the Forest Officers, these lands 

 prove to be agricultural and not more 

 valuable for their timber than for farm- 

 ing, they were listed for settlement. In 

 this way practically all lands of enough 

 possible agricultural value to induce 

 some one to apply for them, have been 

 or will be listed and eliminated from the 

 forests, except those lands which are 

 covered by heavy stands of timber on a 

 soil which would be agricultural, if 

 cleared. The liberality of the Forest 

 Service in listing lands has gone even 

 beyond the points of the limits of wis- 

 dom, for in some cases on National 

 Forests, from twenty to forty per cent 

 of the lands listed on application of 

 would-be homesteaders are not even 

 filed upon, but remain vacant, and the 

 number of claims which are proved up 

 will fall far short of those listed. 



There remains the heavily timber 

 lands with good soil. Under the opera- 

 tions of the old land laws, all such lands 

 were eagerly sought by claimants who 

 proved upon them as homesteads or se- 

 cured them under the Stone and Tim- 

 ber acts. Few of these claimants had 

 the slightest intentions of retaining 

 these lands for homes and they sold 

 them to lumber companies at low prices 

 as soon as they obtained title. In this 

 way the large holding of the Western 

 Lumber men were built up. 



To prevent a repetition of this process 

 to secure the true aims of the law and 

 encourage bona fide settlers and not 

 timber land grabbers, the Forest Service 

 has been obliged to report adversely on 

 hundreds of applications for timber 

 lands under the homestead provisions 



under the act of June U, 1906. On 

 the other hand the service attempts to 

 encourage the sale of timber from these 

 lands as rapidly as possible. When the 

 timber is sold and cut the lands are 

 listed for settlement and none but the 

 genuine homesteaders ever apply. 



If such lands should fall into the 

 hands of lumber companies who already 

 own vast areas, the chances are that they 

 will not be logged for many years. After 

 removing the timber the companies will 

 endeavor to sell these lands to settlers 

 who will thus be under the handicap of 

 paying for the land as well as clearing 

 it for farming. The policy of the serv- 

 ice tends to concentrate lumbering and 

 sales on agricultural lands and is the 

 surest method of hastening the settle- 

 ment of such lands. It is evident that 

 under the present law agricultural de- 

 velopment is stimulated and not de- 

 layed. 



The situation calls for immediate 

 action on the part of those who desire 

 the true development of the West and 

 are opposed to the old wasteful policy 

 of the past. The specious arguments 

 which are cited to justify this timber 

 grab break down in the light of those 

 facts. If the nation is to have timber 

 in the future, it must come largely from 

 lands owned by the Nation and the peo- 

 ple. If inroads upon these timber lands 

 are allowed to go on unchecked in the 

 interest of private greed, it will not be a 

 decade before the National Forests will 

 be reduced to barren rocks and snowy 

 mountain tops, which now compose 

 more than half their total area. 



SHOOTING IN BURMA* 



By a. J. BuTTERWiCK, E. A. C. Forests 



XN the beginning of this year I was 

 instructed to go and do markings 

 in the Mahuya and Paunglin Re- 

 serves, which lie on the eastern slopes of 

 the Pegu Yomas, and in which the two 

 chaungs, the Paunglin and Mahuya, take 

 their rise, and uniting, eventually form 

 what is commonly known in Burma as 

 the Pazundaung creek. When I arrived 

 at my destination, the villagers round 



about came and gave me thrilling ac- 

 counts of the many tigers and elephants 

 which roamed about the surrounding 

 forests. As the latter class of animals 

 may not be shot except under certain 

 conditions, and as I had never shot a 

 tiger and was very anxious to do so, 

 I gave all my spare attention to the 

 former class. I tried again and again 

 t(^ purchase a bufi^alo or cow-calf to put 



