28 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
relating thereto, we shall never have in the United States much prac- 
tical interest, because the circumstances under which landed property 
is held in this country are altogether different. 
The title of our lands is allodial, and the owner absolutely owns all 
the rights belonging to the soil, subject only to the right of eminent do- 
main, when the government sees fit to assert it, and to the obligation or 
assisting by taxation in the support of government. The codes and 
jurisprudence of Europe, so far as they relate to Forestry, are, therefore, 
of little concern in the future management of our woodlands; and all 
the special training bestowed upon young men, in qualifying them for 
the administration of these interests, would, so far as relates to legal 
provisions and the various remedies that they provide against the 
evasion or violation of these laws, be lost upon one intending to devote 
himself to tree-culture with us. 
But we have, nevertheless, much to be considered as regards legal 
provisions for the encouragement of planting, and already in many of 
the States premiums and exemptions have been allowed, some of which, 
being ill-advised and full of mischief, have already been repealed. In 
other States some protection may be needed which has not been given; 
and in the future we need a means for carefully collecting and presenting 
full and reliable information for the guidance of State legislatures, to 
the end that nothing be neglected that their true interests may require, 
and that there be no more blunders to correct. The Forestry report of 
1877 gave the principal laws that had been passed up to that time for 
the encouragement of forest-tree planting; that of 1878 will give all 
that shave since been enacted, with a careful inquiry into the causes 
which have in some cases led to the repeal of bounties formerly granted. 
It should be the duty of the person having charge of this inquiry to re- 
port annually upon this subject, in order that a uniform standard of ex- 
cellence in regard to legislation upon this subject may be reached and 
maintained. 
But let it not be inferred that we can learn nothing from European 
experience upon the management of forests. On the contrary, we 
have everything to learn and apply, that this experience can teach us, 
with regard to methods and management, and to the scientific researches 
that are being made for the discovery of principles, and the operation 
of natural laws, for the advancement of the interests depending upon 
Forestry. 
There are over twenty Schools of Forestry in Europe, in which this sub- 
ject is taught in the most thorough manner, in all its relations to science 
and its applications to the planting, management, and renewal of for- 
ests. The professors in these schools have, in many instances, prepared 
special memoirs upon subjects of practical interest, and some of these 
schools, as at Tharandt, Neustadt-Eberswalde, Nancy, Hohenheim, &c., 
have published from year to year information of practical interest in 
every country where trees can be grown. At most of these schools, ex- 
