^' 



16 TIMBER ON THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



Still worse, the system of Inmbering heretofore practiced in thatre<?ion 

 is exceedingly wasteful — not more tban half the timber that is felled, 

 being used for any useful imrpose whatever. The rest is left to decay, 

 or it becomes a prey to the flames, which, finding an abundance of dry 

 material upon the ground, throughout the lumbering region, sweep over 

 wide districts in dry seasons, destroying not only much standing timber, 

 but everything in the way of young shoots and undergrowth by which 

 the slow process of reproduction may in some places have began. 



Again, in the report of 1875-'76 (a change having brought another 

 Commissioner into oflSce), we find the following views expressed with 

 Regard to the sale of timber lands : 



A national calamity is being rapidly and snrely brought upon the country by the 

 useless destruction of the forests. Moch of this destruction arises from the abuses of 

 beneficent laws for giving land to the landless. The operation of these laws is salutary 

 when settlements are made under them, upon lands fit for a home and cultivation 

 by the agriculturist ; but the policy, if such it may be called, of allowing the pine lands 

 to be settled upon under the pre-emption and homestead laws is a mistaken charity, 

 prolific of great evil. These lands, whether situated on the Atlantic or Gulf coasts of 

 the South, the Lake Superior and Upper Mississippi regions of the North, or on the 

 mountains of the Territories of the great interior and the Pacific coast, are alike unfit 

 for agriculture, and in no manner meet the requirements of a home and continued res- 

 idence for the agriculturist ; they are valuable only for the timber growing upon them. 

 Settlement upon these lands under the homestead and pre-emption is abandoned. In 

 all the pine region of Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi, where vast areas have 

 been settled under the pretest of agriculture, under the homestead and pre-emption 

 laws, scarcely a vestige of agriculture appears. The same is true on the Pacific coast 

 and in the mountara regions of Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Idaho. 



As a remedy for these abuses, the report above quoted suggests the 

 reservation of lauds under suitable protection, or its sale at its proper 

 value as the demands of the country require it. To accomplish this sale, 

 the land should be surveyed and appraised by experts, the value being 

 based upon the amount and accessibility of the timber. There should 

 be an absolute confiscation of timber cut upon the public lands, and a 

 fine and imprisonment, instead of an easy settlement by compromise, as 

 is now the custom. The sales should be for cash only, and in the mining 

 districts a reasonable price should be required for the wood sold for 

 mining purposes. It was believed that pine lands, honestly appraised 

 at their true value, could be sold as fast as needed, and that the timber 

 thus acquired would be carefully husbanded in the hands of owners, 

 who, having paid a fair price, would desire the largest return from their 

 investment. He remarks: 



It is an anomalous fact that the goTernment is giving away the rich alluvial soil of 

 Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Minnesota to any citizen whoVill plant a few acres of 

 Cottonwood or other inferior timber, while under the provisions of the pre-emption 

 and homestead laws it is granting a license to destroy millions of acres of pine forests 

 of almost incalculable value, which should be preserved as a nation's heritage. 



He urges immediate attention to this subject, as every day of delay 

 will continue to add largely to the already enormous losses of the gov- 

 ernment. 



The system established in 1855, by a regulation of the department, in 

 the absence of legal provision expressly defining its powers, remained in 

 force until 1877, when the accumulated evidence of its defects led to the 

 issue of the following : 



Depaktmext of the Interior, General Land Office, 



Washington, D. C, May 2, 1877. 

 To Registers and Receivers of United States Land Offices: 



Gentlemen: The Secretary of the Interior has concluded to change the method 

 formerly adopted for protecting the timber on the public lands, by which you were 

 made agents for that purpose within the limits of your respective land districts, as 



