1088 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



FEDERAL LAND GRANTS TO STATES 



Congress has, since 1785, granted land from its public domain to 

 every State in the Union. In cases where States had no public land 

 within their borders, they received scrip for land in other States which 

 the States turned into cash. The area of land so granted reached, at 

 the end of the fiscal year 1931, the enormous aggregate of 203 million 

 acres. In addition, the railroads have been granted approximately 

 94 million acres representing public interest in the extension of trans- 

 portation facilities. 



The purpose underlying the Land Grant Act of 1785 was to help 

 the States to support their public schools. The furtherance of educa- 

 tion has been a dominant motive in the granting of millions of acres 

 of land to the States throughout the Nation's history. Other purposes 

 have, of course, been served. Early in the nineteenth century 

 Congress donated nearly 5 million acres of public domain to aid 

 States in building canals. In 1841, nineteen States received half a 

 million acres each for " internal improvements". The great period 

 of railroad grants came mainly after the Civil War. 



The condition upon which States received their grants during the 

 first 75 years was very simple, namely, that moneys received from 

 sales would be devoted to public schools, highways, or to whatever 

 purpose was designated. Some of this land brought the State $3 per 

 acre which a year later was sold for $25 per acre. Other areas were 

 sold by the States for as little as 50 or 60 cents per acre. 



It is interesting to note that New York sold its scrip to Ezra 

 Cornell at 60 cents per acre, with the understanding that he should 

 pay for the land as he sold it, and that all receipts over the amount 

 of his obligation would become an endowment for a university. 

 Cornell located the scrip in the white-pine district of Wisconsin and 

 sold most of it at an average price of $6.73 per acre, thus securing 

 for Cornell University an endowment of more than 5} million dollars. 

 The university's forestry department has, of course, benefited along 

 with other units. Forest land of high value was here involved which 

 could presumably have been managed for continuous revenue. The 

 fact that the forest property was exploited without reference to its 

 continuing timber values represents a highly successful piece of busi- 

 ness for New York, the State which the grant was intended to benefit, 

 but it also illustrates strikingly the fact that neither the Federal 

 Government nor the States remotely contemplated that the forest- 

 covered parts of the vast areas granted would be managed as State 

 forests. 



During the last 50 years, Congress has imposed more rigid require- 

 ments. Certain lands were granted to States on condition that they 

 should be irrigated and prepared for settlement. Title to these lands 

 was to pass only after completion of the designated program. In 

 1927, 10 States had applied under that provision for lands totaling 

 nearly 8K million acres, but titles to only a little more than 1 million 

 acres, were approved. In the case of grants to Arizona and New 

 Mexico in 1910, the Governor and the secretary of state were required 

 to approve all investments of funds derived from the "sale of lands, 

 and disposal or sale for any objects other than specified in the law was 

 to be deemed a breach of trust." The areas granted as land or scrip 

 to the several States from 1785 to 1931 are shown in table 12. In this 



