1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



175 



The area of school lands originally 

 granted, in each county west of the 

 Cascade Mountains, is as follows : 



538,466.00 301,567.84 840,033.84 



The area of the common school 

 grant has been computed from the 

 plats of the surveyed townships in each 

 county with indemnity selections add- 

 ed and all sales to date deducted. 



In the timbered counties above enu- 

 merated the state will receive for its 

 common school grant, when all the 

 lands are surveyed, approximately 

 847,360 acres. Any loss due to forest 

 reserves, etc., can be selected in lieu 

 ; lands elsewhere. 



Taking the strictly timbered lands, 



it is the opinion of all timbermen that 



they are worth to-day, at a minimum 



valuation, $10 to $15 per acre, or $8,- 



: 400,000 to $12,600,000 certainly a 



' most munificent endowment for our 



; schools. Yet the aggregate sales of 



i timber bills of sale issued in the past 



four years, comprising over 67,000 



acres, has only averaged $8 per acre 



for the timber, separate from the land. 



WHAT CAN THE STATE DO WITH ITS 

 TIMBER? 



Only three plans have been suggest- 

 ed for the management and disposal of 

 i the state timber lands : 

 _ First. To retain absolutely all state 

 timbered lands for a period of years. 



Second. To allow the state land 

 commissioner full discretion and pow- 

 er to sell any or all of these lands in 

 fee simple at any time. 



Third. To sell only the timber from 

 the state lands and then onlv as need- 



ed, with the condition that it be re- 

 moved in a limited period. 



If the state reserves from sale abso- 

 lutely all timber lands it will lose all 

 the timber standing on such portions 

 of them as come within the scope of 

 logging operations. 



Over 60 per cent of the state lands 

 are comprised in sections 16 and 36 of 

 each and every township in the state. 

 It is impossible in logging to avoid 

 these sections. The logger is not go- 

 ing to allow the fact that one-eight- 

 eenth of the land is reserved by the 

 state to deter him from beginning log- 

 ging operations in any locality. 



When these lands are reached and 

 become accessible in the course of or- 

 dinary logging operations, if the state 

 does not realize upon them it never 

 will. With the surrounding lands cut 

 over, fire will run over these isolated 

 sections with each recurring season 

 until little of value remains. Further- 

 more, if they escape the flames, the 

 logger may in a few years cease his 

 operations in that vicinity. Track and 

 equipment reaching in value into hun- 

 dreds of thousands of dollars will be 

 removed and it will be financially im- 

 possible to ever replace them in order 

 to reach these isolated school sections 

 lying four miles from each other. 



If an ironclad law is enacted and 

 maintained reserving the state timber 

 lands, the state would eventually get 

 absolutely nothing for its timber inher- 

 itance. 



Is this the policy a business man 

 would adopt? Does the large timber 

 land owner hold his scattered lands in 

 the face of such conditions? 



Were the state to offer its lands in- 

 discriminately for sale to-day it cannot 

 be denied but that in a very short time 

 they would be absorbed by private 

 owners. If an absolutely honest sale 

 such as a business man would make 

 should be made by the land commis- 

 sion, these lands might realize $10 per 

 acre, or over $5,000,000. Certainly a 

 mere pittance for the permanent en- 

 dowment of our state schools. Com- 

 panies owning large bodies of timber 



