TIMBER-CULTURE FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 19 



replanted or the vacancies filled within one year from the first planting: Provided, That 

 the parties claiming the benefit of the provisions of this act shall prove, by two good 

 and credible ■witnesses, that the gronud was properly prepared and planted in such 

 seeds, nnts, or cuttings, and were so destroyed by inevitable accident in such year. 



That it shall not be necessary to plant trees, seeds, nuts, or cuttings in one body, pro- 

 vided the several bodies, not exceeding four in number, planted by measurement, ag- 

 gregate the amount required and in the time required by the original and amended 

 act.i 



In rulings under this act, the General Land Office has in some cases 

 excepted the Osage orange, box-elder and white willow from the classes 

 of timber that may be planted by those seeking to acquire title by tim- 

 ber-culture. We are unable to see a just reason why either of these 

 should be thus excluded, as each of them in its proper soil and climate 

 becomes valuable. It would be difficult to find a more precious timber 

 for wagon-making than the Bois Ware (Osage orange) of Arkansas and 

 Texas ; a more serviceable tree than the box-elder on some parts of the 

 Western plains, or a better tree for screens and wind-breaks in Northern 

 Iowa and in Western Minnesota than the white willow. These rulings 

 are not understood to have been general, and it is to be hoped they will 

 not in any case be permanent. 



Some care has been taken to make personal inquiries of persons who 

 have had opportunities for observing the operation of the timber-culture 

 act, and in addressing circulars of inquiry for statistical information 

 upon this subject, the Registers of land districts were asked to state any 

 suggestions of amendment which in their judgment were desirable, some 

 of these are given on the following page. With respect to its present 

 operation, 1 fully concur with Hon. Leonard B. Hodges, of Minnesota, 

 in his statement of the defects :^ 



First. It is requiring more of the settler than he is able to accomplish. The result 

 is, in a very large majority of cases the law is not complied with any further thnn to 

 file the claim in the land-office, pay the entry-fee, and break ten acres. By this time 

 the settler begins to realize the nature of the contract he has undertaken to execute. 

 He now sees clearly that he is too poor to do the work as it should be done. He begins 

 to evade the plain intent and spirit of the law, in the painful economy of time and 

 labor he can so poorly afford to expend. Not that he wishes to defraud the govern- 

 ment or shirk his responsibilities, but rather from an inadequate realization of what 

 must be done, and a natural desire to save what he has invested and can so poorly af- 

 ford to lose, leads him into such crooked practice as we see on nine-tenths of the 

 quarter-sections held under the provisions of this act. Another defect in the law is 

 in the extreme facility land can be held by parties who make the claim, with no 

 serious intention of planting any trees, but simply to do a little breaking and take 

 his chances in selling his interest in it, in the course of the two years he can hold it, 

 for a profit. In this way, and aided by extensions of time, granted on account of 

 destruction by grasshoppers and other unavoidable accidents, large quantities of very 

 desirable government land is prevented from being occupied and improved by actual 

 settlers. Thousands of acres of government lands are thus held, free of costs or taxes, 

 and I see no difficulty in a company of ingenious operators, doing an extensive real- 

 estate business under the workings of this act, for quite an extended and indefinite 

 period of time. Another defect in the Congressional timber-culture act is the clause 

 permitting the trees to be planted "not more than twelve feet apart each way." 



This is a very serious defect, and of itself virtually defeats the objects and purposes 

 of the act. Nature shows us plainly how forests are grown, and it is folly on the part 

 of Congress to evade or repeal natural laws governing the growth of forests. Nature 

 plants thickly, pays no regard to the permission of Congress to plant so wide of the 

 mark as twelve feet apart each way, and succeeds. In her own way she grows more 

 timber and better timber on ten acres than the settler can in the mode indicated by 

 Congress on forty acres, and at a tithe of the expense. To illustrate : forty acres 



' By an act approved March 8, 1877, it is provided that where crops were destroyed 

 or seriously injured by grasshoppers in 1877, the claimant is allowed to be absent from 

 his lands till October 1, 1878, under such regulations as might be prescribed, and if 

 these insects reappear in 1878, a like leave is granted till October 1, 1879, without prej- 

 udice of rights. 



* Report of State Forestry Association, 1877, p. 44. 



