172 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



is taken by careful fa.rmers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere — is tlie 

 first step toward management ; the farmers, again, are also the ones 

 first to appreciate the value of thinning natural growth for the pur- 

 pose of improving the remainder. But all such attempts still seem 

 exceedingly isolated. 



There should also be mentioned a few experimental plantations at 

 several agricultural colleges, which, though not extensive, nor in 

 most cases started with any special purpose or systematic plan, will 

 be exceedingly valuable by and by as ready means for instruction in 

 forestry when this shall form a part of their plan of studies ; and 

 even now, often by the very mistakes that have been made, they are 

 rendered most instructive, affording means for the observation of tree 

 growth and the interdej)endence existing between it and the many 

 varying conditions in the artificial forest. The experimental railroad 

 plantations have been discussed to some extent in my report on 

 Western tree planting. 



GOVERNMENT ACTION IN REGARD TO ITS OWN LANDS. 



To protect its timber domain the General Government, through 

 the Land Office, appoints " special timber agents," "with the duty 

 of enforcing compliance with the several laws relative to protection 

 and preservation of public timber and the rules and regulations pre- 

 scribed thereunder by the Department of the Interior." "They 

 should remember that it is not the purpose of the law to prohibit the 

 use of so much of the public timber as may be actually needed by 

 the bona fide settlers for agricultural and domestic purposes, but to 

 prevent it from being made an article of speculation for the pecuniary 

 gain of a few individuals to the detrinaent of the many, or from being 

 wantonly wasted or destroyed." 



Lawful taking of timber from the public domain includes: 



*" Cutting on homestead and pre-emption entries before final proof for purposes of 

 clearing and for buildings, fences, or other improvements, also cutting and selling 

 any surplus of timber on lands to be cleared. 



" On mineral lands, all citizens of the State in which the lands are situated are per- 

 mitted to fell or purcliase and reserve for building, agricultural, or other domestic 

 purposes any timber, provided (1) that the same is not for export from the State 

 or Territory where cut; (2) that no timber less than 8 inches in diameter, is cut or 

 removed; (3) that it is not wantonly wasted or destroyed (the failure to utilize all of 

 the tree that can be profitably used and to take reasonable precaution to prevent the 

 spread of fires will be regarded as wastej. 



"The timber on military, naval, Indian, and other Government reservations can 

 only be cut by persons emploj^ed by the Government for that purpose. 



' ' All land-grant railroads are authorized to take timber from the public land adja- 

 cent thereto for construction purposes. (Tlie Denver and Rio Grande Railroad is also 

 authorized to take timber for repairs). The term ' ' adjacent " is, or used to be by con- 

 struction, extended somewhat indefinitely, as also the ]3urposes for which the timber 

 was taken. 



"All right-of-way railroads are a,uthorized to take timber from the public lands ad- 

 jacent to tlie line thereof for construction purposes only. The persons cutting such 

 tiinber must be in tlie actual employ of the railroad, and cannot cut and sell timber 

 to the railroad at a piece-price. 



" Trespassers are liable to both criminal prosecution and civil suit, as well as pur- 

 chasers of timber unlawfully cut; but compromise is admissible in both or either 

 actions if the evidence mdicates that the trespass was not willful but unintentional, 

 or if there are other extenuating circumstances. 



"In the Pacific States and Territories the sale of tunber land (unfit for agricult- 

 ure), in parcels of not more than 160 acres, for the express purpose of benefiting the 



* From various reports of the Commissioners of the General Land Ofifice. 



