20 DEFECTS IN TIMBER-CULTURE ACT OF J873-'74. 



planted twelve feet apart each way must be tborougbly cultivated during the growing 

 season of each year, until the growing trees have attained siub proportions as to shade 

 and mulch the'grouud. It requires the constant daily labor of the settler during the 

 growing season from May to August, The parties sought to be benefited by the act 

 are too poor to give so large a portion of their time to the work. The " human neces- 

 sity for daily bread" compels their attention to the care of growing crops, upon which 

 existence depends. It is a notable fact that thus far the ouly successful and genuine 

 cases of tree-planting under the provisions of this act that have come under my notice 

 are those where the planter baa been tinancially able to plant closely ; say on an aver- 

 age of four feet apart each way. 



A forest so planted, with prompt and thorough cultivation for three years, is a suc- 

 cess. The chief cost is terminated in three years from planting ; the young trees 

 make a straight, upright, vigorous growth ; they soon cover and shade the ground so 

 thoroughly as to effectually prevent the growth of weeds or grass among the trees, 

 and the annual mulching from the falling foliage keeps the ground moist and friable, 

 obviating the necessity of cultivation, and promotes the " healthy growing condition" 

 which the act of Congress very properly requires. 



On the other hand, the evasions of the law are painfully conspicuous. In many in- 

 stances strips of breaking three or four feet wide, parallel with each other, are either 

 planted with tree-seeds or cuttings, so as to bring them within the distance allowed by 

 law. The planting is usually done in the raw sod, left without care or cultivation, 

 smothered in rank weeds and grass, and swept over by successive prairie fires. It is 

 difficult to employ language sufficiently vigorous in denouncing such childish folly. 

 It is as idle to expect to grow a crop of forty acres of forest-trees without first break- 

 ing every foot, then followed after the decomposition of the sod by thorough plowing 

 and repeated harrowing, an it would be to expect to grow a paying crop of corn by 

 digging post-holes 1'^ feet each way on the unbroken prairie and dropping the seed 

 therein. A modification of the timber-culture act requiring the settler to plant not 

 less than 2,700 trees pei acre, instead of 300, and ten acres instead of forty, would ac- 

 complish the objects contemplated by the framers of the act, and in time prove an in- 

 calculable blessing to the treeless wastes of the Western and Northwestern States and 

 Territories. » * » The law, to be available and productive of the greatest good to 

 the peoi)le and to the country, should be so amended as to allow all who have already 

 made claims under its provisions to be allowed to plant ten acres instead of forty ; to 

 plant not more than 4 feet apart each way, and to be planted within four years; two 

 and a half acres the second year; two and a half the third, and five the fourth. The 

 claimant should be compelled, to report the actual condition of his timber-plantation 

 annually to the Register of the land-office of the district in which the land is located. 

 He should be, by the terms of the act, compelled to do his work in a thorough and 

 workmanlike manner, to keep the ground well and thoroughly cultivated, until such 

 time as the growth and development of the trees shall have rendered such further 

 cultivation impracticable and unnecessary. And he should be required to fill all 

 vaci^ncies occurring from any cause withiu one year; such report to be verified by the 

 affidavit of the claimant and also by the affidavits of two competent and disinterested 

 witnesses, failing in which the land should be open to settlement by other parties. 



It is urged in objection to such modifications of the timber-culture act, that Congress 

 never would consent to give away sixteen acres of land for the planting of one acre of 

 timber. 



Now this objection brings up one more modification, and that is to make the pro- 

 visions of the act cover every quarter section of government prairie land withiu the 

 limits of what is universally recognized as the " treeless region," instead as now only 

 every fourth quarter-f ectiou. 



Ill a district iu Kausas where numerous entries have been made, the 

 Eegister remarks : 



As the law now is, I think it fails to accomplish the object for which it was enacted. 

 Under its provisions any person qualified can enter 160 acres of laud and hold it two 

 years (by breaking ten acres of prairie) for speculative purposes. If the law was so 

 amended that no person could enter more than 40 acres (except in cases where a six- 

 teenth subdivision of a section is fractional, and contains more than 40 and less than 

 80 acres), and having the same requirements with regard to planting one-fourth of the 

 area, «fec., in timber, as at present, and reducing the fees to $o and the commissions to 

 $2 for each entry, iu my opinion the law would be much more likely to accomplish the 

 object for which it was intended than it now is. A greater number of people would 

 be supplied with timber, if successful in growing it, and there would be a greater 

 prohahUity of being able to comply with the provisions of the law in planting and 

 j-rowiu'^ the timber than at present. And, beshles, settlers would not be nearly as 

 likely to enter 40 acres for speculative purposes as 160 acres. If any of the timber- 

 culture entries which have been made iu this office are ever perfected, I think it will 

 be almost exclusively entries containing 40 and dO acres. 



