TIMBER RESERVATIONS: TIMBER ON PUBLIC LANDS. 11 



By another act, approved March 3, 1827, the President was authorized 

 to take proper measures to preserve the live-oak timber growing on the 

 lands of the United States, and he was authorized to reserve such lands 

 in sulScient quantities to render the same valuable for naval purposes. 

 Provision was made by an act, approved March 2, 1831, for the punish- 

 ment of persons in cutting or destroying any live-oak, red cedar or other 

 trees growing on any lands of the tFuited States, by a fine of not less 

 than thrice the value of the timber cut and imprisonment not exceeding 

 twelve months. ^ 



The amount of land expressly reserved under the acts of 1817 and 

 subsequently is as follows : 



Acres. 



Alabama (November 28, 18321, three halfsections in Mobile 



County 240 



Florida (October 23, 1830, to December 19, 1860, at various 

 times), many detached parcels, cliiefly in counties bordering 

 upon the Gulf of Mexico and Suwanee Eiver, including the 

 whole of Santa Eosa Island 208, 824 



Louisiana (October 21, 1845), Pecan, Cypress, and Kavy-Com- 



missiouers' Islands 9, 170 



Mississippi (October 30, 1832, to April 16, 1858), many sepa- 

 rate parcels on the Gulf coast, including Eound Island 26, 218 



Total 244,452 



OTHEE RESERVATIONS OF TIMBER LANDS. 



Yery limited reservations for public parks have been made in recent 

 years, as will be more fully mentioned on a subsequent page. 



There have also been made special reservations of lauds around mili- 

 tary posts, but of the amount of timber thus withheld we have no sta- 

 tistics. The various Indian reservations include considerable amounts 

 of timbered lands, some of which may have been selected on this ac- 

 count; but of these no information has ever been publicly reported, and 

 probably none has been obtained. 



TIMBER ON THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



In the sale of public lands through a long period, laws have been 

 provided for the conveyauce of land in mineral districts for mining pur- 

 poses by exceptional modes of entry and at discriminating prices, but 

 no provision has hitherto been made for the sale of valuable timber 

 tracts differently from that which applies to x)rairies. Our proverbially 

 valuable "pine lands" have been held at the same prices as other lands, 

 although notoriously unsuited to agricultural purposes when once cleared 

 of their timber, and have been held subject to pre-emption and home- 

 stead entry, although they have often been abandoned as soon as the 

 timber was cut off. 



Under the various acts already noticed, and by virtue of decisions 

 and judicial rulings, these statutes were held to apply to the whole 



State Papers, (Naval Affairs,) i, pp. 8, 27, :iS, 41, 42, 75, 482, 586, 605. 689 ; ii, 624 ; iii, 47, 50, 

 211, 763, 917, 918; iv, 32, 98, 104, 107, 123, 163, 191, 204, 213, 218,' 219, 220, 222, 223, and 

 368. See also Ex. Docs., Nineteenth Congress, first session, vol. v. No. 85, and sec- 

 ond session, vol. 5, No. 114; Twenty-first Congress, second session, vol. 1, No. 2, p. 234; 

 Beports of Committees (same session), vol. 1, No. 102. Ex. Docs., Twenty- second Con- 

 gress, first session, vol. 4, No. 178, and second session, vol. 1, No. 23. 



' Statutes at Large, iv, 471 ; Revised Statutes of tlw Unittd States, section 2, 461. 



