1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



119 



arid farm lands to the east can be made 

 to produce double crops. 



All in all, if but a portion of the re- 

 markable work which the Department 

 of Agriculture is carrying on bears the 

 fruit which the men working upon it 



predict, the country will see, in the 

 next decade or two, a development of 

 the one-time supposed useless and fear- 

 ful Great American Desert which will 

 be a source of increasing astonishment 

 to the conservative agricultural student. 



CREATION OF FOREST RESERVES A 

 BENEFIT TO MINERS 



BY 



JOHN D. LELAND 



Bureau of Forestry 



A CT of June 3, 1878 (20 Stat., 88), 

 ** provides : 



"That all citizens of the United 

 States, and other persons, bona fide 

 residents of the State of Colorado, or 

 Nevada, or either of the Territories 

 of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wy- 

 oming, Dakota, Idaho or Montana, 

 and all other mineral districts in the 

 United States, shall be and are hereby 

 authorized and permitted to fell and 

 remove, for building, agricultural, 

 mining, or other domestic purposes, 

 any timber or other trees growing or 

 being on the public lands, said lands 

 being mineral, and not subject to en- 

 try under existing laws of the United 

 States, except for mineral entry, in 

 either of said" * * * "districts of which 

 such citizens or persons may be at the 

 time bona fide residents, subject to 

 such rules and regulations as the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior may prescribe 

 for the protection of the timber and 

 the undergrowth growing upon such 

 lands, and for other purposes." 



Miners on public lands outside of 

 forest reservations are, therefore, re- 

 stricted to the use of timber on mineral 

 lands in the mineral district where the 

 mine is located. There is no provis- 

 ion of law whereby they can purchase 

 timber at a nominal price. The public 

 lands falling within the provisions of 

 said act are subject to speculative cut- 

 ting ; and are open to gross frauds, 



not only against the United States but 

 against the legitimate miner. There 

 is no protection from the danger of 

 fires, or from the danger of the ex- 

 haustion of the supply of suitable tim- 

 ber for mining purposes, because both 

 the miner and the speculator cut the 

 choicest timber and leave the tops and 

 lops and other rubbish to invite de- 

 structive fires. 



The Act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat, 

 34-36), under which the forest re- 

 serves are administered, provides that : 



"Any mineral lands in any forest 

 reservation which have been or which 

 may be shown to be such, and subject 

 to entry under the existing mining 

 laws of the United States and the 

 rules and regulations applying thereto, 

 shall continue to be subject to such 

 location and entry, notwithstanding 

 any provision herein contained." 



It also provides that : 



"The Secretary of the Interior may 

 permit, under regulations to be pre- 

 scribed by him, the use of timber and 

 stone found upon such reservations, 

 free of charge, by bona fide settlers, 

 miners, residents, and prospectors for 

 minerals, for firewood, fencing, build- 

 ings, mining, prospecting, and other 

 domestic purposes, such timber to be 

 used within the State or Territory, 

 respectively, where such reservation 

 may be located." 



The said Act further provides: 



