FOREST POLICY. 97 



A number of conflicts arise between the railroad grants and 

 the swamp land grants. 



In addition, Congress has granted the railroads, upon certain 

 conditions, the right to pass through public lands by Act of 

 March 3rd. 1875. 



Eleventh : Schoolland-laws. In every township of every public 

 land state, two non-mineral sections (no. 16 and no. 36) are 

 given to the state for the benefit of the public schools existing 

 within the state. Such "schoollands" must be sold, usually, by 

 the state, to the exclusion of any management thereof (by the 

 state on behalf of the schools). The problem of schoollands 

 situated within national forests is apt to give special trouble 

 (Forestry and Irrigation, 1907, p. 546). 



If a school section is established, surveyed and identified within 

 a national forest already existing, the state may select any other 

 unreserved, non-mineral lands of the United States in lieu of 

 such section. In the Dakotas, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Washington 

 and Wyoming, however, the school-sections belong to the state 

 as if the national forests had never been established. 



C. CHANGES SUGGESTED. 



(Compare Report of Public Lands Commission): 



1. The balance of the public lands left vacant must be clas- 

 sified. The present land laws are not suited to meet the 

 changed conditions of the time, and the actual conditions of 

 the lands left vacant. 



2. Lieu land laws and scrip laws must be repealed, or should 

 not be enacted any more. 



3. Timber and Stone Act must be repealed. 



4. Commutation clause of the Homestead Act must be re- 

 stricted to cases of actual residence exceeding three years. 



5. Size of entries under the Desert-Land Act should be reduced 

 to 160 acres; and actual living on the desert land, for not 

 less than two years, and the actual production of a valuable 

 crop on not less than a quarter of the area should be required. 



6. The Federal Government should retain in fee simple and 

 maintain in efficient condition either all vacant land, the pro- 

 ductiveness of which a private individual can neither secure 

 nor maintain single-handed ; or else all land less valuable for 



SCHENCK, FOREST POLICY. 7 



