SUMMER MEETING. 285 



this educational institution, and they contributed their lands. 

 These lands were in the northern part of the state, up anion^ the 

 hills and the mountains, the White Mountains. These lands were 

 chiefly timbered lands but, of course, of no value. Well, it run alon^ 

 and run alon^, and that part of them which had been contributed 

 by tlie state of course was not subject to taxation, but the land given 

 by individuals, the deed having passed from the government to the 

 individual, of course was subject to taxation. It ran along for 

 seventy-live years, and all at once a small railroad was built up into 

 that section of the couutr}- — and now they have even gone so far as 

 to build a railroad on top of the White Mountains — and the land 

 through there that for sp many years was worthless has become 

 and is worth millions of dollars, and Dartmouth College has de- 

 rived the benefit of some three or four hundred thousand dollars 

 worth of land which the state gave them. On most of the lands 

 that individuals gave them, taxes were assessed, and after 

 twenty or twenty-five years they lost the title. Now, any one who 

 wishes to provide for the future of an institution, this would be 

 the way to do it. This would be the way to endow a college. I 

 have no doubt the lumbermen would all be willing to contribute 

 these lands for an object about which they would have a little some- 

 thing to saj' in the future. 



There is another — I don't know but what I have taken up a little 

 too much time, but I would like to relate an instance in my early life. 

 Before I came out to this country, in 1853, my brother and I bought 

 a piece of timber in the town of Hookset(?), New Hampshire, and there 

 weren't many railroads there at that time. The timber had been 

 cut off this land twenty years before, or fifteen years before, and the 

 man h d received a very large sum of money for the timber cut off 

 the land. He sold the land for a small price. We got a very large 

 amount of pine timber cut off from that land, which we sold for 

 masts and keels for building vessels and the like, and we got a good 

 deal more from that land than the man who sold the timber off 

 from it originally. That shows what can be done with cut-over 

 lands when the timber is left growing for a few years. That was 

 only fifteen or twenty years before. So much for that. 



After the land has been cut over, if only the timber could bo pre- 

 served and put entirely into the hands of the warden and have it 

 protected, in seventy-five or fifty years this land, this cut-over land, 

 would be worth millions. Our countr}' out here is settling up fast, 

 with five hundred thousand coming in from foreign countries 

 besides the increase of our own population, and ten years from 

 today there won't be any government land in this state to be had; 

 so that within fifteen years from this day these lands, all these 

 latids, who can tell but what they will be worth a fortune? — from 

 fift}- to seventy to one hundred years, I have no doubt of it at nil. 



I am very glad to sec this matter taken up, and I heartily approve 

 of Captain Cross' plan, because I am somewhat interested myself, 

 and if some such bill is passed, I shall give my share to the uni- 

 versity, and let it have the proceeds. 



I thank you for your attention. 



