472 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



November, 



efforts to check the waste and destruc- 

 tion of public timber being the onl}' 

 one ever passed with the intent of being 

 generally applicable throughout the en- 

 tire country ; and, as such, it has stood 

 for the greater part of a century as rep- 

 resenting the "attitude of the law" 

 towards public-timber trespassers. 



More stringent and restrictive legisla- 

 tion could scarcely be conceived of, 

 sparing neither fine nor imprisonment 

 and making no distinction between the 

 unintentional and the willful trespasser, 

 nor between the act of the needy set- 

 tler and that of the speculating corpora- 

 tion, but making it a crime in the case 

 of one and all alike. 



So extremely severe and so unjust in 

 its want of discrimination has the De- 

 partment of the Interior adjudged this 

 criminal statute that it has for many 

 years urged its repeal and recommended 

 broader and more liberal legislation in 

 its place. As yet, however, in spite of 

 urgent and repeated recommendations 

 to this effect, Congress has withstood all 

 appeals to modify this statute. 



If space admitted, it might be also 

 shown that the article is open to criti- 



cism in its conclusions regarding the 

 compromising of criminal proceedings. 

 It will suffice to say, however, without 

 further discussion of the point, that the 

 compromise provision in the act of June 

 3, 1878 (20 Stat., 89), to which the ar- 

 ticle makes reference, applied only in its 

 operation to cases which were on the 

 court docket at the date of the passage 

 of the act, and was limited and remedial 

 in its scope. If it were held that it ap- 

 plied to all subsequent cases of timber 

 trespass, it would simply place a pre- 

 mium upon such trespasses, enabling 

 the depredators to obtain timber at the 

 lowest rate imaginable, viz., $2.50 per 

 acre. 



The Land Department continues to 

 recommend criminal prosecution in all 

 cases of willful trespass on public timber. 



The law does not sanction the com- 

 promising of criminal proceedings in 

 cases in general of trespasses upon pub- 

 lic timber. Authority for this state- 

 ment is found in the opinion of the vSo- 

 licitor of the Treasury under date of 

 March 3, 1884, in which he held that 

 " a criminal liability of this nature can- 

 not be compromised." 



A PLANTATION OF EUROPEAN LARCH 



BY 



AUSTIN F. HAWBS. 



IN view of the increasing interest in 

 forestry, and especially in tree-plant- 

 ing, it seems advisable to bring to notice 

 the present condition of plantations made 

 some years ago, and to explain the causes 

 of failure or the merits of the systems 

 followed. 



A small plantation of European Larch, 

 near New Haven, Connecticut, bears 

 instructive evidence of good intentions, 

 but failure through a lack of knowledge 

 of the silvicultural requirements of the 

 species. 



About twenty-three years ago a farmer 

 of this region imported from Europe a 

 quantity of young Larch, averaging two 

 and one-half feet high. These were 



planted in rows four feet apart in each 

 direction, on a gradual east slope. Al- 

 though the importation of these young 

 trees and the planting of them must 

 have been very expensive, it is quite 

 possible that had the proper attention 

 been paid to the silvicultural require- 

 ments of the tree the undertaking might 

 have proved a financial success. 



In order to find out the contents and 

 character of the present stand an exam- 

 ination of the plantation was recently 

 made. The area measured approxi- 

 mately one-fifth of an acre. All the 

 trees of the stand, and as many stumps 

 as were still distinguishable, were cali- 

 pered. Analyses were made of such 



