476 United States. 



to trees, which law, as far as we know, remained 

 without result. About the same time a real wave of 

 enthusiasm regarding the 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 en- 

 couragement of timber planting, either under bounty 

 or exemption from taxation, were passed in Iowa, 

 Kansas and Wisconsin in 1868; in Nebraska and New 

 York in 1869; in Missouri in 1870; in Minnesota in 

 1871; in Iowa in 1872; in Nevada in 1873; in Illinois 

 in 1874; in Dakota and Connecticut in 1875; and 

 finally the federal government joined in this kind of 

 legislation by the so-called timber-culture acts of 

 1873 and 1874, amended in 1876 and 1877. 



For the most part these laws remained a dead letter, 

 excepting in the case of the federal government offer. 

 The encouragement by release from taxes 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 were in many or most cases repealed.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 tree- 

 less territory, conferred the title to 160 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 



