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



instead of acres, to be planted here and there at the option of the planter applying for 

 the grant. They would generally be plaured on the baaks of the ditch, and tueir shade 

 would keep the water from direct exposure to the sun, thus saviug as much or more 

 than they would use. They would add to the pleasant aspect of the couutry, and 

 benefit in other ways than iu the growth of wood. 



Soon after the passage of the timber-act nearly all of the land open for entry, 

 was entered as timber-claims. I sincerely believe a majority of them were for specu- 

 lative purposes, simply to have an excuse to hold the land for two or three years, and 

 thou sell out for one or two hundred dollars to somo new comer seeking a homestead. 

 A large number of the timber-claims iu this couuty have fizzled out in just this way. 

 None of those still holding claims under the timber act have fully complied with the 

 requirements of the law. This may be deemed a sweepiug assertion, but it ia, never- 

 theless, true. Claims are being contested nearly every week at the land-office at Saliua, 

 and the same is being done at theofiicesin Concordia and Kirwin. In all that pertains 

 to general knowledge the average American mind is highly intelligent, but I am com- 

 pelled to confess, after close observation, that mind is profoundly ignorant of the first 

 principles of arboriculture. ,,^ 



The timber- act * * * will never be the means of dotting our plains all over with 

 beautiful groves, to give beauty to the landscape or attbrd a shelter from the cold, 

 biting, impatient blasts of the Northwest. Planting trees 12 feet by 12 will never form 

 a forest. (T. W. Eobson, Cheever, Dickinson County, Kans.; State Hort. Report, 

 1876, p. 132.) 



Having briefly stated the provisions of the timber-culture act and its 

 amendments, with the opinions of some persons who have had good 

 opportunities for observing its operation, we will notice the results so 

 far as known. 



In Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, having 8 land dis- 

 tricts, and in Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin, having 15 laud dis- 

 tricts, no entries have been made. The same may be said of 3 districts 

 in Arkansas, 3 in California, 2 in Colorado, 1 in Idaho, 4 in Minnesota, 

 1 in Montana, 3 in Nevada, 1 in New Mexico, 3 in Oregon, 2 in Wash- 

 ington, and 1 in Wyoming; in all, 47 land districts. In Texas the pub- 

 lic lands were released to the State upon its annexation, and of course 

 this act does not apply. 



In short, experience has shown that while in some sections a consid- 

 erable amount of timber has been planted in good faith, and with a fair 

 prospect of its being continued to the extent and in the manner pre- 

 scribed by law, in other sections, and iu a great number of cases, it has 

 failed to answer the intentions, and has been made an opportunity for 

 fraudulent practices, which the Registers of the land-offices within whose 

 districts the entries are made, have no power to prevent, when there is 

 every reason to believe that the intention at time of making them is to 

 evade their provisions and secure some unlawful advantage. 



Opinions very generally agree as to error in the clause allowing a space 

 of twelve feet between trees at first planting. In fact this open spacing 

 appears to be in opposition to sound principles iu sylviculture, and is to 

 be regretted, because on the prairies, and on the great western plains, 

 where planting is most needed, the drying winds, that prevail at certain 

 seasons, cannot well be endured by trees unless so closely set as to 

 shelter one another from the earliest period. Such plantations would of 

 course require thinning, from time to time, as the trees became larger 

 and needed more room. 



ntOnRTY LIBRARY 

 N. C. State Colktt 



