310 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



still owned by the federal government. The most deplorable laxity in> 

 the enforcement of the laws of ownership has long existed. Whole- 

 sale timber stealing, criminal carelessness in starting destructive forest 

 tires and reckless waste of widespread mountain forests is going unre- 

 buked and unpunished, almost at a premium. 



Hon. Carl Schurz, ex-Secretary of the Interior, oays on this subject, 

 in an address delivered before the American Forestry association, as- 

 sembled in Philadelphia, October 15, ultimo : 



" When I entered upon that important office, having the public 

 lands in charge, I considered it my first duty to look around me and to 

 study the problems I had to deal with. Doing so I observed all the 

 wanton waste and devastation I have described. 



"I observed the notion that the public forests were everybody's 

 property, to be taken and used or wasted as anybody pleased, every- 

 where in full operation. I observed enterprising timber thieves not 

 merely stealing trees, but stealing whole forests. I observed hundreds 

 of saw-mills in full blast, devoted exclusively to the sawing of timber 

 stolen from the public lands. 



" I observed a most lively export trade going on from gulf ports, 

 as well as Pacific ports, with fleets of vessels employed in carrying- 

 timber stolen from the public lands to be sold in foreign countries, 

 immense tracts being devastated that some robbers might fill their 

 pockets. 



" I thought that this sort of stealing was wrong, in this country, 

 no less than elsewhere. Moreover, it was against the spirit and letter 

 of the law. I, therefore, deemed it my duty to arrest that audacious 

 and destructive robbery. Not that I had intended to prevent the set- 

 tler and the miner from taking from the public lands what they needed 

 for their cabins, their fields, or their mining shafts ; but I deemed it 

 my duty to stop at least the commercial depredations upon the pro- 

 perty of the people. And to that end T used my best endeavors and 

 the means at my disposal, scanty as they were. 



" What was the result ? No sooner did my attempts in that direc- 

 tion become known, than I was pelted with telegraphic dispatches from 

 the regions most concerned, indignantly inquiring what it meant that 

 an officer of the government dared to interfere with the legitimate 

 business of the country. Members of Congress came down upon me, 

 some with wrath in their eyes, others pleading in a milder way, but all 

 solemnly protesting against my disturbing their constituents in this 

 peculiar pursuit of happiness. I persevered in the performance of my 

 plain duty. But when I set forth my doings in my annual report, and 

 asked Congress for rational forestry legislation, you should have wit- 



