i6 



THE FORESTER, 



January, 



number of tracts of timber land, paying for 

 it with soldier scrip. Of this scrip they have 

 a great quantity, bought for a song from 

 soldiers who did not use it themselves. The 

 scrip calls for small parcels of land, from 40 

 to 120 acres each, and reads "agricultural 

 land" ! The fact that it is diverted into other 

 channels is considered sufficient cause for 

 prosecution by the Government. Instead of 

 taking the land in a bunch, it is alleged that 

 the lumber company takes it in various sec- 

 tions, skipping here and there and using their 

 own and the land lying between their tracts 

 indiscriminately. This is very difficult to dis- 

 cover, as the lines are hard to run through the 

 heavy timber and it would involve a great 



ruthless manner. Another count which has 

 been lodged against the company is that it has 

 been buying elk meat at two cents per pound 

 and that a number of hunters have been pro- 

 viding it for the wood- choppers in various 

 camps belonging to the company. In view of 

 the fact that this was done during the close 

 season for big game, it is a most serious offense, 

 and when taken with the rest of the allega- 

 tions, it seems important that something should 

 be done to thwart the schemers. The inform- 

 ants of The Times are reliable men and their 

 reports indicate a most malodorous state of 

 affairs. 



Last fall the Assistant Commissioner 



YELLOW PINE ON BITTER ROOT RESERVE, MONTANA. 



amount of labor to locate the boundaries cor- 

 rectly. The company has from 150 to 200 men 

 at work at all times and it does a general tim- 

 ber trade, dealing in ties, mining timbers and 

 saw logs. The amount cut annually is im- 

 mense and the loss sustained by the Govern- 

 ment is enormous. In addition to the scrip 

 deals, it is alleged that last winter the company 

 cut much timber on Horse Creek without pay- 

 ing for it even in scrip. Two years ago they 

 cut it around Wells, and the year before that 

 their traffic was carried on along Jim Creek. 

 They made no pretensions save an open steai 

 on those occasions. 



Mr. Wells, of the town which bears his 

 name, has been threatened by the company on 

 account of the bitter fight he has been making 

 against the members of it. It is said that the 

 country is being stripped of timber in a most 



of the General Land Office, acting in 

 the absence of the Commissioner, re- 

 fused to sell to a contractor a large tract 

 of timber on the west slope of the 

 Medicine Bow range in Wyoming, hold- 

 ing that under the law timber cannot 

 be sold from the public lands to non- 

 residents of the State. In making this 

 ruling the Assistant Commissioner was 

 in the right, yet his decision might well 

 have been based on a more sweeping 

 provision of the law. In the Act of 

 March 3, 1875, among other rights con- 

 ferred on railroad companies, is the 

 privilege of taking from the public lands 



