STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 235- 



through these at the general land office, the facts as they are, con- 

 cerning the execution of the law, from year to year. It would be 

 no hardship for the holders of these claims to be required to report 

 annually to the register of his land district, the amount of land 

 broken and cultivated, and planted with trees, at the end of each 

 year. The blanks for this purpose might be issued with the 

 certificate of first entry, or might be sent through the mails as 

 they were needed for use. They should be properly certified, and 

 false reports might be punished by forfeiture of title. With sucb 

 reports properly consolidated, we would be able to know defi- 

 nitely, what we can now only guess at, as to whether the timber 

 culture act is destined to be as successful as its friends desire, or 

 whether in certain regions, it has afi'orded only an opportunity for 

 speculation and fraud. 



Firmly believing as I do, that the agricultural welfare of the 

 whole country would be increased and sustained, if a portion of 

 the area was somewhat evenly interspersed with groves and belts- 

 of trees, and kept in due proportion to the cultivated surface, I 

 would deem it proper to enact a law in the future conveyance of 

 new lands by the government under any form of title, to insert a. 

 clause requiring that within a certain reasonable period, a given 

 amount of land, if prairie, should be planted, or that if now wood- 

 land, that a certain portion should be reserved, and continued 

 thereafter in some form of tree growth. Exceptions should of 

 course be made to this rule in regions where it would be imprac- 

 ticable, and some might regard such a law as arbitrary and 

 oppressive. 



It may not be possible to secure such an enactment, but it is- 

 within the power of every owner of land to prove upon his own 

 premises, the benefits of such plantations, and it is to be earnestl)'" 

 hoped that examples will multiply until these benefits are widely 

 enjoyed. 



