TIMBER CULTURE LAWS. 1 G9 



ill the United States Department of Agriculture out of which grew the Division of Forestry, as 

 described in the body of the report, a bureau of information on forestry matters. 



While, these were the beginnings of an official recognition of the subject by the Federal 

 Government, private enterprise and the separate States started also about the same time to 

 forward the movement. In 18(17 the agricultural and horticultural societies of Wisconsin 

 appointed a committee to report on the disastrous effects of forest destruction. In 1809 the 

 Maine Hoard of Agriculture appointed a committee to report on a forest policy for the State, 

 leading to the act of 1S7J -'for the encouragement of the growth of frees," exempting from 

 taxation for twenty years lands planted to trees, which law, as far as we know, remained without 

 result. About the same time a real wave of enthusiasm with regard to planting of timber 

 seems to have pervaded the country, and especially the Western prairie States. In addition to 

 laws regarding the planting of trees on highways, laws for the encouragement of timber planting, 

 either under bounty or exemption from taxation, were passed in Iowa, Kansas, and Wisconsin in 

 1S08, in Nebraska and in New York in 180!), in Missouri in 1870, in Minnesota in 1871, in Iowa in 

 1S7L', in Illinois in 187 1, in Nevada, Dakota, and Connecticut in 18712, and finally the Federal Gov- 

 ernment joined in this kind of legislation by the so-called timber-culture acts of 1873 and 1874, 

 amended in 1870 and 1877. 



For the most part these laws remained a dead letter. The encouragement by release from 

 taxes, except in the case, of the Federal Government, was not much of an inducement, nor does 

 the bounty provision seem to have had greater success, except in taking money out of the 

 treasuries. Finally these laws were in many cases repealed. 



The timber-culture act was passed by Congress on March 3, 1873, by which the planting of 

 timber on 40 acres of land, or a proportionate area in the treeless territory, conferred the title to 

 100 acres or a proportionate amount of the public domain. This law had not been in existence ten 

 years when its repeal was demanded, and this was finally secured in 1891, the reason being that, 

 partly owing to the crude provisions of the law and partly to the lack of proper supervision, it 

 had been abused and had given rise to much fraud in obtaining title to lands under false pretenses. 

 It is difticut to say how much impetus the law gave to bona fide forest planting and how much 

 timber-growth has resulted from it. Unfavorable climate, lack of satisfactory plant material, and ' 

 lack of knowledge as to proper methods led to many failures. In 1889 the Division of Forestry 

 made an analysis of the figures furnished by the General Land Office, which shows that 38,080,500 

 acres were entered under the timber culture act up to June 30, 1888. This should represent a 

 planted area of 2,380,030 acres if the law were complied with and the entries not changed. 

 Allowing ten years for timber-claim planters to prove up their entries (the law places it at eight 

 years, allowing extensions on account of failures), the entries of the first six years, 1873 to 1878, 

 alone" give us some points of comparison for the estimation of results. During that time 3,821,843 

 acres had been entered, representing a supposed area of less than 50,000 acres planted to timber. 



But in 1888, ten years later, the acreage proved up was only 779,582 acres, or about 20 per 

 cent of the land entered, representing perhaps 175,000 acres planted, if the original plantations 

 persisted. 



From this it would appear that the timber-culture act has been a failure so far as the creating 

 of forests is concerned. 



It is asserted that a better percentage will be obtained from the entries of later years, because 

 more experience has been gained, and timber claim planting was done under contract by persons 

 who make a business of it. Yet the consensus of unbiased testimony goes to show that timber- 

 claim planting, as a rule, did not produce the results sought after, and has mostly been used as 

 a means for speculation in Government lands, partly with that design from the beginning, partly 

 as a necessity after failure to obtain the land by timber planting. 



There is also considerable planting of wind-breaks and groves done on homesteads, which is 

 said to be attended with better results. Altogether, however, the amount of tree planting is 

 infinitesimal, if compared with what is necessary for climatic amelioration ; and it may be admitted, 

 now as well as later, that the reforestation of the plains must be a matter of cooperative if not of 

 national enterprise. 



