PUBLIC DOMAIN AND OTHER FEDERAL FOREST LAND 



By LYLE F. WATTS, Director Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range 



Experiment Station 



CONTENTS 



Page 



History 637 



The period of land disposal 637 



The period of reservations 638 



The present public domain 639 



Timberland management 640 



Range management 642 



Watershed management 643 



Disposal plan 644 



Cost of administration 646 



Probable receipts 647 



Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road land grants. _ 647 



Management 649 



Recommendations 650 



HISTORY 

 THE PERIOD OF LAND DISPOSAL 



The first attempt by the United States to give legal status to a 

 comprehensive system of land disposal was predicated on a belief 

 that the public lands should all pass to private ownership and that 

 the sale of these lands would furnish a gigantic source of revenue, 

 adequate to finance the major part of the cost of government. The 

 public-revenue feature did not long survive as a major purpose, but 

 the policy of universal private ownership persisted until late in the 

 nineteenth century. 



Universal private ownership of land, with the widest possible dis- 

 tribution, was the aim of most of the land laws enacted prior to 1891. 

 The following laws, among many, were passed in furtherance of this 

 policy: The ordinance of 1784, the military bounty (script) laws, the 

 homestead law of 1862, the timber culture law of 1873, the timber and 

 stone law of 1878, and the desert land law of 1890. 



Not only was every encouragement given to the passage of land 

 title from the Federal Government direct to the private individual 

 but provisions were made for the passage of title through a third 

 party. The land grants so lavishly made for the purpose of encour- 

 aging colonization and development of the West were directed to 

 ultimate private ownership. Practically all grants included stipula- 

 tions so designed as to encourage sales to individuals in tracts of the 

 small size then thought to be suitable for separate home units. The 

 various public-land States in their statehood charters and in subse- 

 quent legislation were given an immense area for public education and 

 for various State institutions. Very large grants were made to indi- 

 viduals, corporations, and local governments as subsidies for the 

 construction of wagon roads, waterways, and railroads. Swamp lands 

 to the extent of 64 million acres were granted to States in the expecta- 

 tion that they would be reclaimed through drainage. 



637 



