14 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 



Nevada An annual bounty of $10 per acre 

 and $10 per half mile, along a public high- 

 way, for twenty years, paid by the county, 

 and such planting not to add to or increase 

 the taxable value of said land. This act does 

 not apply to willows or cotton woods planted 

 along canals for the protection of the banks. 

 New York Allows overseers of highways 

 to give a rebate of $1 for every four trees set 

 out along the highways. 



Wisconsin Exempts from taxation lands 

 set to belts of trees until they attain a 

 heighth of twelve feet; afterward the owner 

 of such tree belts is entitled to an annual 

 bounty of $2 per acre. These tree belts, it is 

 provided, shall be on the west and south side 

 of tracts of land, and not less than thirty 

 feet wide for each five acres of land. 



Colorado Our State Constitution contains 

 sections giving the General Assembly power 

 to enact laws in order to prevent the destruc- 

 tion of, and to preserve the forests, upon the 

 lands of the State; and to provide that the 

 increase in value of lands by reason of 

 orchards, hedges, etc., shall not be taken into 

 account in assessing for taxation. In 1881 

 an act was passed providing that for ten 

 years such exemption should exist, dating 

 back from 1876, so that this expires in two 

 years. Also, providing a bouncy for tree- 

 planting along public highways. Fines are 

 also imposed for the careless setting on fire 

 of timber. But no laws have as yet been en- 

 acted covering the preserv ation of the forests 

 within the borders of the State. These 

 being the property of the United 

 States Government, are not legitimately 

 the subject of legislative action, save 

 by memorial to Congress; and this Conven- 

 tion should see to it that such a memorial, 

 asking, in the language f the State Consti- 

 tutional Convention in its memorial of 1875 

 upon the same subject, that Congress "put 

 the respective forests and waste forest 

 grounds in regions where irrigation has to 

 be used for agricultural purposes, under the 

 control of the respective Territorial and 

 State governments." The reasons that ex- 

 isted for such a memorial ten years ago are 

 more clear and decisive now than then; and 

 here let me quote from Mr. F. P. Baker's 

 preliminary report on the "Forestry of the 

 Mississippi Valley," published by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in 1883, in which he 

 comments upon the spoilage of Government 

 lands in Colorado in the following vigorous 

 language: "In regard oo the forest lauds 

 still the property of the United States, the 

 question has arisen, shall they he protected 

 for the benefit of the country and of genera- 

 tions yet to come, or shall they be reducec 

 to desert wastes for the private oeuefit of 

 speculators and corporations? Take the 



case of the Government forest lands in Colo- 

 rado. Twenty-four years ago the slopes of 

 the Eocky Mountains were covered with the 

 untouched forests sufficient, if properly cared 

 'or, to supply the reasonable needs of the 

 settler and miner, as contemplated by the 

 aw, till the end of time. In the 

 shadow of these forests rose the headwaters 

 of the Eio Grande, Platte and the Arkansas, 

 and the snow in the deep woods melting 

 slowly, the rise in. the streams was gradual 

 and uniform for a long period. To-day these 

 mountains are being left peeled and bare. 

 The mountain side is being converted into a 

 3ald, bleak desert; the springs are drying up, 

 and the Kio Grande, Platte and Arkansas now 

 rise with sudden violence, and then sink as 

 suddenly in their dry and diminished beds. 

 In other words, the people of Colorado, New 

 Mexico and Kansas are having inflicted upon 

 bhein incalculable injury, and a wrong is be- 

 ing done which, if not arrested, will disas- 

 rously affect generations yet unborn." 



Mr. Baker advocates Government Forest- 

 ers, schools of forestry and experimental 

 farms where the methods of irrigation as ap- 

 plied to forest culture should be thoroughly 

 tested. But we can hardly expect National 

 legislation of such character as yet. If, by 

 concert of action we can secure some law by 

 which the States and Territories of the great 

 Rocky Mountain range most directly inter- 

 ested in the preservation and enlargement of 

 the forests that are now so rapidly being de- 

 stroyed under the "liberal" interpretation of 

 the "domestic use" privilege in the law now 

 existing, we shall be accomplishing much and 

 making rapid strides toward the end we aim 

 at. The State of Colorado is entitled to and 

 is now selecting through its Board of Land 

 Commissioners, about 90,000 acres to com- 

 plete the quota of its various grants. If, in 

 selecting lauds wholly agricultural, it could 

 be allowed to select wood-lands, these might 

 be secured in localities where it would 

 be desirable to make efforts to pre- 

 serve forest growth, or at least to 

 carry on experimental work whose 

 value to future generations we are not able 

 now to properly estimate. This is thrown 

 out merely as a suggestion. We are so much 

 in the dark as to our ability to act, and in 

 what direction, that any faint gleam of light 

 thrown on our path may lead to clearer vis- 

 ion. At least, and surely, we can have a 

 Memorial Comittee, representing various sec- 

 tions of our State, whose duty it shall be to 

 prepare and circulate an appeal to our Gec- 

 eral Assembly, convening next January, for 

 a memorial to Congress; securing signatures 

 in such numbers as shall convince both the 

 General Assembly and Congress that we are 

 in earnest in this matter, as indeed we 

 need be if we do not desire drouth, desola- 



