FORESTRY MOVEMENT OF THE SEVENTIES 395 



"1. That Congress should, by proper legislation, withdraw all lands chiefly 

 valuable for pine timber from the operation of the homestead and preemption 

 laws, and from all manner of sale or disposition except for cash at a fair ap- 

 praised value, to be ascertained in such manner as Congress may provide, under 

 the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. 



"2. That the Secretary of the Interior be authorized by law to sell at just and 

 fair valuation, to be ascertained as Congress may direct, timber from the pub- 

 lic lands in mining districts where it would be contrary to existing laws to sell 

 the land by legal subdivisions, or in any manner except as provided in the min- 

 ing laws now in force ; also that he be authorized to sell the timber upon any 

 unsurveyed land, not mineral, when neeeded for actual settlement before the 

 public surveys are extended over such lands. This legislation is necessary, 

 pending any other that may be deemed best by Congress. 



"3. That Congress be requested to enact a law providing for the care and cus- 

 tody of such timber lands as are unfit for agriculture, and for the gradual sale 

 of the timber growing thereon, and for the perpetuation of the grozifth of tim- 

 ber on such lands by such needful rules and regulations as may be required to 

 that end. That Congress be requested to enact such laws as may be necessary 

 for the appraisement and sale of such timber lands as it may deem best to sell; 

 also providing for the care and custody of such lands until such time as they 

 are sold. . . ." (Italics are the author's.) 



This proposal to broaden out the merely protective timber policy 

 of that day into a definite, systematic forest administration, was 

 promptly taken up by Secretary Schurz, and handled with vigor, in his 

 annual report for the same year, to the following effect : 



"The rapidity with which this country is being stripped of its forests must 

 alarm every thinking man. . . . But the government can do two things : 

 (l) It can take determined and, as I think, effectual measures to arrest the 

 stealing of timber from public lands on a large scale, which is always attended 

 with the most reckless waste; and (2) it can preserve the forests still in its 

 possession by keeping them under its control, and by so regulating the cutting 

 and sale of timber on its lands as to secure the renewal of the forest by natural 

 growth and the careful preservation of the young timber. 



"To avert such evil results [from wasteful destruction of the forests], I 

 would suggest the following preventive and remedial measures: All timber 

 lands still belonging to the United States should be withdrawn from the opera- 

 tion of the preemption and homcsfcad laws, as well as the location of the vari- 

 ous kinds of scrip. (Italics are the author's.) 



"Timberlands fit for agricultural purposes should be sold, if sold at all, only 

 for cash, and so graded in price as to make the purchaser pay for the value 

 of the timber on the land. This will be apt to make the settler careful and 

 provident in the disposition he makes of the timber. 



"A sufficient number of government agents should be provided for to protect 

 the timber on public lands from depredation. 



