ENCOURAGEMENT BY STATE GOVERNMENTS. 197 



A Mil for an act to promote the regroieth of jJJHe Timber. 



. Be it enacted, cf'c, That where, ou r^ny timber laud hereafter sold by the United States, 

 pine timber shall be cut, seed trees of piue shall be left staudiug at a distance from 

 each other of uot over seventy feet, measuring from the bodies of the trees, for a period 

 of five years from the time of cutting; but this provision shall not apply to timber 

 land where all the trees are growing at a distance of more than seventy feet from each 

 other, measuring from the bodies of the trees, nor to land cleared for bona-fide cultiva- 

 tion or improvement. 



Section 2. The cutting of pine timber in violation of this act shall cause the title of 

 the legal subdivision of the land ou which the cutting occurs to vest in the State or 

 Territory wherein it is situated, the same as if it had been granted to such State or 

 Territory for the support of the public schools. 



ENCOURAGEMENT OF FOREST- PLANTING BY OUR STATE GOVERNMENTS. 



Many foreign countries, in which there are extensive domains belong- 

 ing to the government or to local municipalities and public institutions, 

 have established and for long periods have maintained systems of for- 

 est-management directly under State control as permanent departments 

 of the Government and necessary incidents to the proper maintenance 

 of the supply of forest products. The details of these systems will be 

 elsewhere in this report more fully noticed. It is sufficient here to say 

 that they are for the most part inapplicable with us, for the reasons that 

 most of our States have no forests or lands on which forests could be 

 grown. Our counties, cities, and towns, are not land-holders, and the 

 landed estates of public corporations are scarcely worth mentioning, or 

 are already so absolutely given that no new conditions could be now 

 imposed. It is true tha^t in some States there are lands granted for 

 specific objects ; but these are largely already sold, and questions might 

 arise in case of any attempt to attach new terms in the management of 

 properties already granted absolutely and the titles fully confirmed. 

 Aside from these considerations, the proper care of forests implies the 

 appointment of agents specially educated to the business — and this class 

 of men we do not have among us, and those that may have been edu- 

 cated at schools of forestry abroad would find their experience from 

 foreign examples often inapplicable to the conditions that exist with 

 us. As a rule our climate is dryer than in Europe, and as we approach 

 the treeless belt of the west this circumstance opposes difficulties which 

 methods there etfectual would scarcely surmount. We must in these 

 cases work out an experience for ourselves through individual enterprise 

 and by associated effort. 



For the sufficient reasons that our State governments do not have 

 lands proper for sylviculture under their control, and that we are as yet 

 wanting in the class of agents that could manage them with best effect, 

 we must, at least for the present, depend upon the owners of the soil to 

 plant and rear the forests of the future. A beginning has already been 

 made through the interest excited in the discussions of agricultural and 

 horticultural societies, and, to some extent, under direct or incidental 

 encouragement of the States. Let us consider some of the ways by 

 which this encouragement can be most effectually applied : 



1. A State government may properly offer premiums for the planting 

 of trees — and this can best be done through the agency of agricultural 

 and horticultural societies. A given sum will secure a larger result, if 

 offered in many small prizes, than in a few large ones, and the competi- 

 tion might generally be limited to single counties rather than to larger 

 districts. The classification of premiums should apply to the best 

 plantations of timber of given kinds ; to experiments upon different 

 soils ; to methods of management ; and to the trial of species not native 



