1885.] GOVERNMENT TIMBER LANDS. 27 



right lines, running north and south, east and west. The character 

 of the land has heen taken into account very little. To some 

 extent the field notes of the surveyors give information as to swamps 

 and wooded lands, but only a special examination by the contem- 

 plating purchaser could enable him to decide as to the real value of 

 any piece of land. The vast amount of forests on the public domain, 

 worth more than all its lands if cleared of timber, worth more than 

 all the minerals within the ground, capable of yielding, in connection 

 with private forests, i)roducts annually of greater commercial value 

 than the largest cereal crop or that of cotton, the Government has 

 taken no notice of. It has not regarded them as adding one dollar 

 to its assets. It has put no higher price upon a section of land 

 having timber on it worth thousands of dollars than it has upon a 

 section of tlie poorest open land, destitute of tree or shrub, swept 

 by the blizzards of the north or the siroccos from the Gulf, and 

 favoured with so little rainfall as to forbid any profitable cultivation. 



The only recognition of value in timber was in the early years of 

 the present century, when the superior quality of the live-oak for 

 ship-building induced some legislation on the part of Congress for 

 the preservation of the limited amount of that timber growing in 

 some of the Southern States, in order to provide a sufticient supply 

 for the construction of our naval vessels. 



In recent years, as great depredations have been made upon the 

 public timber lands in other parts of the country, some efforts have 

 been made to restrain them. But this has been done only to a 

 partial extent, and by certain rulings and constructions by M-hicli 

 the Acts referring to the appropriation of the live-oak timber have 

 been made applicable to other timber rather than by any express 

 legislation designed to meet tlie case. The Government cannot be 

 said to have taken any such action as would indicate that it regards 

 its timber as valuable property, to be guarded and protected as 

 property should Ije. 



If it is asked, then. What is the value of the Government timber 

 lands ? the answer must be, We cannot tell, because the Government 

 has not even taken a proper inventory of its lands. It does not 

 know how much timber land it possesses, nor what is its quality. 

 We CPU estimate its value only approximately. In reply to an 

 inquiry on the subject, the Commissioner of the Land Office says : 

 " There is more or less timber in all the States and Territories 

 containing public lands ; but since such lands are not classified as to 

 timber, the proportion of the same in each cannot be arrived at by 

 this office." 



Without, therefore, venturing upon any figures to represent the 

 commercial value of the timber lands, inasmuch as we know so 



