WARNING of the "woodchuck" in a bill introduced in 

 Congress providing for the opening and entry to set- 

 tlement of lands fit for agriculture in the national for- 

 ests, has been issued by Henry S. Graves, chief forester of 

 the federal government. In an article in the Saturday Even- 

 ing Post, Mr. Graves flays the speculators who, in years gone 

 by, have gained control of hundreds of thousands of acres 

 of forest land, and who have secured in them, oftentimes, the 

 most valuable water power sites. 



Cities Example Resulting From Opening Land in Olympic 



National Forest. 



The eagerness with which the speculators in timber pursue 

 every opening for the spoliation of the national forests is 

 made in a striking manner by Mr. Graves, when he cites the 

 results of the elimination from the Olympic national forest 

 in Washington of over 700,000 acres of heavily timbered land, 

 on the pretense that it was chiefly valuable for agriculture. 

 He says that ten years later not over 600 acres of the more 

 than 700,000 eliminated, had been brought under cultivation; 

 that title to 523,000 acres has passed into the hands of own- 

 ers who are holding it purely for its timber value. 



In this article he gives the following list of the "farmers" 

 who are now the owners of large bodies of these "agricul- 

 tural" lands: 



Acres. 



Milwaukee Land company 81,630 



James D. Lacey & Co 48,370 



Edward Bradley 16,360 



James W. Bradley 16,360 



Weyerhaeuser Timber company 15,560 



Henry & Larson Land company 13,840 



Simpson Logging company 12,360 



