610 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
$5,000,000 annually in the average, and that out of this but little 
more could be recovered than enough to pay the salaries of the few 
agents empleyed ostensibly for the protection of this property: 
5 Number 
Value of AWount Re 8 eto. | of agents 
Year. timber re- | |, Abele -OF PrO- | emp oyed 
portedstolen.| TeCOvered. pgeniscel in the 
2 aggregate. 
$891, 888 $41, 680 $40, 000 17 
2,044, 278 77, 865 40, 000 31 
8, 144, 658 27,741 75, 000 25 
7, 289, 854 52, 108 75, 000 26 
2, 862, 530 49,451 75, 000) 23 
9, 339, 679 101, O86 75, 000 21 
6, 146, 935 128, 642 75, 000 26 
Spa ea ee a Peete ty Nols cme 36,719, 985 478, 073 455, 000° 24 
During the same time the protests of the Commissioners of the 
Land Office, a itaea in the annual reports, stated that it was im- 
possible with the appropriations and forces at command to stay the 
wanton, wholesale devastation and destruction of the public timber; 
but their protestations have remained unheeded. 
Every one of these reports deals lengthily and in detail with the 
depredations and devastation by ax and fire, the deficiency of funds 
with which to counteract them, with the feeling of the law-abiding 
citizens in regard to them, the necessity of preserving at least the 
forests at the headwaters of streams, and with the proposed changes 
of administration. 
The report for 1887 contains a chapter especially illustrative of the 
manner in which a small minority, unchecked, defrauds the nation 
which every citizen who feels himself a part of this great Govern- 
ment ‘‘of the people, by the people, for the people ” will do well to 
ponder over. 
Such is the moral aspect of our present condition in regard to our 
public timber lands and the reasons for a change in our forest policy. 
Under the present conditions not only is it made difficult for the 
resident population to supply itself with the needed timber in an 
honest way, but the danger of doing so in opposition to the law en- 
tails an enormous and needless waste. Acres of timber are felled in 
anticipation of a possible use, but are commonly left to rot on the 
ground because their haulage may become too risky or the depre- 
dator finds it difficult to dispose of the timber; and consequently it 
furnishes food to the ever-recurring annual fires, which destroy also 
not acres but miles of standing forest, and no legal disposition of the 
burned timber can be made. It is well attested by men acquainted 
with the manner of timber-cutting on the Pacific slope that those 
who may cut timber legally on mineral lands, homesteads, or timber 
entries have no interest except to satisfy a present need, for they cut 
timber regardless alike of future supply, proper management, or of 
favorable forest conditions, utilizing only that part of the tree which 
is readily available and leaving the remainder to rot or burn. Local 
supplies are waning in many parts of this region, but no intelligent 
and systematic management, such as would insure a full utilization 
and continuity of the timber, is encouraged under the existing laws 
and regulations. While, in view of the needs of local mining opera- 
tions, this is an undesirable prospect, especially to mines yielding 
only low-grade ores, which will not allow the burden of heavy charges 
for the importation of their mining timber, at the same time the 
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