22 DEFECTS IN TIMBER-CULTURE ACTS OF 1873-'74. 



the water, be has no land left for cultivation. The only relief from this 

 would be a modification in the law, allowing the location to be made of 

 irregular form, to suit the necessities of the case. This correspondent 

 suggests that the area required for planting should be reduced from a 

 quarter to an eighth, as fortj' acres of trees in that part of the country 

 would require all the labor of one man during the summer to keep them 

 alive, and adds : 



I have tried twice to raise trees in this Territory, and have failed each time. If a 

 luau should gee 160 acres of land for keeping even twenty acres of trees in a growing 

 condition for four years, I would say ho had paid high for his laud. 



The Register of one of the districts in Utah suggests, in view of the 

 importance of tree-planting to the future welfare of the country, that it 

 should be made imperative on every man entering public land that he 

 plant and raise from five to ten acres of timber, as a condition-precedent 

 to the granting of a patent. 



In one of the districts of California the following statement and sug- 

 gestions were made : 



In this land district a very large proportion of the timber-culture entries were ob- 

 viously made, not for the purpose of cultivating timber, but for the sole purpose of ac- 

 quiring, for one or more years, a right to land so entered for the purposes of sheep 

 pasture. I would suggest, first, the timber-culture affidavit should be more sirict and 

 full, requiring the entering party to swear that the entry is not made for the purpose 

 of pasturage, and is not made for the benefit of any other person, in order to obtain 

 pasturage. Second. The timber-culture application should not be an entry of the land ; 

 it should be merely a declaratory statement, giving all the rights which the law now 

 gives, if a compliance with the law is made, but .permitting any other filing or entry to 

 be made over the timber-culture declaration, subject, of course, to the legal rights of 

 the timber-culcurist. If the timber-culture act permitted timber-culture declarations, 

 instead of timber-culture entries, it could do no harm, and it might do much good. 



Prof. E. Gale, of the Kansas Agricultural College, Manhattan, in re- 

 marking upon the timber-culture act, and especially that clause which 

 permits the planting to be twelve feet apart, says : 



The value of close planting can be realized much better after the very sad experi- 

 ence of 1874. There are several points that may be urged for close planting. The 

 force of these observations will be much better appreciated when we have carefully 

 examined the facts which can be adduced from experience. Trees should be x)lanted 

 closely — 



1. For the mutual protection of the trees. 



2. For economy in culture. 

 iJ. For immediate protection. 



4. For the purpose of securing available timber. 



5. For the purpose of securing early returns from our planting. 



There is nothing more evident than that we should shape our plantations with refer- 

 ence to protection. Tbe importance of this whole suliject demands that it receive 

 more careful consideration on the part of the planters. A very few acres of timber 

 judiciously planted will prove of great advantage over a very large farm. Twelve 

 acres arranged in belts will be far more desirable than forty acres in a body. Tbe 

 whole subject demands attention, as it is intimately associated with the highest inter- 

 ests of the State. It is to be seriously questioned whether the present slaape of our 

 timber act may not be such as to hinder, rather than to promote, the interests of for- 

 estry on the plains. The manner iu which trees must be spread over forty ncres of 

 land will, in a vast number of cases, defeat the object aimed at. The reasons for this 

 view are: 



1. The cost of planting and cultivating forty acres of timber will be far more than 

 the quarter-section is worth. 



2. Very few of those who go to the frontier will find it iu their power to support 

 their families and comply witb the conditions of the act. 



3. Tbe danger arising from these exposed or open ijlantations is, that all the trees 

 are subject to suffer from the vicissitudes of our peculiar climate. 



4. Trees thus planted will not serve the purpose of a forest, but virtually become au 

 open orchard. 



