AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 159 



mountain sides; where agriculture is impossible, and 

 the only value is timber, our Government extended its 

 Homestead and Pre-emption laws, framed for our 

 prairies. To acquire title one was supposed to settle 

 on the land, make it his home, make a clearing, plant 

 a crop, build a house, and maintain a residence. 



To acquire title, therefore, he must waste time which 

 should go to the increasing of our national wealth, 

 must destroy a portion of the timber, to which he is 

 striving to obtain title, and thus destroy national 

 wealth, must deprive his family of his support, must 

 live in danger of falling trees, of accidents, with no 

 one near, or he must perjure himself, and little wonder 

 he did the latter, when by doing so he only chose 

 between evils, and chose the one of least real harm. 

 Not quite perjured himself, for he could cut some 

 brush, set out a few fruit trees in the forest and a 

 few cabbages, visit the "claim" every six months, pack 

 in a half window for his "shake shack," leave an axe 

 and a fry-pan there, and thus ease his conscience and 

 those of his witnesses when the day of final proof 

 arrived. 



In this proof he had to swear the land was "chiefly 

 valuable for agricultural purposes," but the decision 

 of the General Land Office eased his conscience by 

 declaring all land "not stony or gravelly was argri- 

 cultural," yet during his lifetime he never expected 

 to see anything grown on this land but timber. Pub- 

 lic opinion approved such an evasion of a ridiculous 

 law, and our Government, not the settlers, should be 

 investigated when complaint has been made, by a less 

 fortunate, and the clearing has been hard to find and 

 the house does not look as if ever used for a home. 



Our timber act was more just, but framed in the 

 interest of land grabbers. These stood ready to loan 



