SO-CALLED SETTLEMENT IN FOREST AREAS. 



BY HON. W. C. EDWARDS. 



There is little that is new to be said upon the subject of the 

 injury done to our forests by the system, or lack of system, 

 which allows people, under pretence of making and carrying 

 on farms, to endanger an immense wealth of standing timber. 

 The evil has been exposed again and again, and every day brings 

 new illustrations of the loss to the public to which it gives rise. 

 It is evident, however, that the public have not yet learned the 

 lesson — though they have paid dearly for the schooling — and 

 it is necessary to take every opportunity to make known the 

 facts in order that they may help to create a public opinion 

 which will compel the adoption of a wise policy. 



It is necessary to make it plain, first of all, that no com- 

 plaint is made concerning the bona fide settlers on land fairly 

 suitable for agriculture. The man who makes and carries on a 

 farm is a useful man, and room and opportunity must be pro- 

 vided for him. Even though a genuine settler may occasion- 

 ally start a forest fire which will destroy far more than that 

 settler's own value to the community, it is not fair to consider 

 the matter in that light. On the whole, the settlement of good 

 agricultural lands, even in timbered areas, is valuable work for 

 the country, and unavoidable accidents, or even ordinary display 

 of human heedlessness, must be allowed for in connection with 

 the work. That which is to be condemned is the mere pre- 

 tence of settlement, which goes on as a means of plundering 

 the public timber wealth of the country. In districts quite unfit 

 for agriculture men will take up land under the pretence of settle- 

 ment. They comply with the necessary forms, hold the land 

 long enough to sell the timber upon it, and then abandon their 

 "farms." The few acres on which such a man pretends to 

 settle may be surrounded to the depth of miles with standing 

 timber which either belongs to the public or in which the public 

 has a direct financial interest because royalty must be paid upon 

 every foot of it that is made into lumber. Being a plunderer 

 who merely assumes the disguise of a settler this man has no 

 interest in the immensely valuable timber by which he is sur- 

 rounded. If, by carelessness in carrying on his own petty and 

 illegitimate operations, he should start a fire which destroys 

 thousands or millions of dollars' worth of timber, he loses noth- 

 ing, nor can he be punished in any way unless the fact can be 

 estabUshed that the disaster was directlv due to his wilful or 



