44 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



bill, "To encourage the growth of timber on western prairies," on 

 February 20, 1872.^® This bill, as introduced, required that 120 acres 

 of each 160 acres should be kept timbered for five years, and provided 

 that any settler fulfilling this requirement should have title to the 

 land. It was favored by the Commissioner of the Land Office, Willis 

 Drummond, who, however, thought the amount of timber required 

 was too great, so this was reduced to forty acres, while the time was 

 lengthened to ten years. As finally passed,^** this act provided that 

 persons planting and maintaining in a healthy condition forty acres of 

 timber on any quarter section of land, might receive a patent for the 

 same. Homestead settlers also might receive patents, if at the end of 

 three years they had for two years kept timber growing on one 

 sixteenth of their claims. 



A real conservation purpose is indicated by the debates on this bill, 

 and also by the vote in the House, but the law had been in effect only 

 a short time when certain defects were recognized. ^^ First of all, it 

 required that the trees be planted the first year, the same year the 

 ground was broken. Furthermore, the entire forty acres must be 

 planted the first year — an initial outlay too great for a poor man. 

 Less objectionable was the fact that it did not permit the entr}'^ of less 

 than 160 acres. The law had been in force less than a year when efforts 

 at amendment were made by the author of the original bill — Senator 

 Hitchcock, and by Representative Bunnell — the stalwart defender of 

 timber culture at all times. ^^ Amendment was accomplished the 

 following year, covering the defects above noted."^ 



Even as amended, the Timber Culture Act failed to produce the 

 results which had been hoped for. It was found impossible to stimu- 

 late tree growth by any such means, and settlers who had entered 

 claims under the act were unable to comply with the conditions pre- 

 scribed. Relief acts of various kinds were passed. In 1876, an act 



69 S. 680; Cong. Globe, Feb. 20, 1872, 1129. 



70 Stat. 17, 605. It may be noted that several years later Ontario, following the 

 recommendations of the American Forestry Congress at Montreal, also passed a 

 law to encourage the planting of forest trees, and voted money for the purpose. 

 Proceedings, Am. Forestry Congress, 1883, 29. 



71 Cong. Globe, June 10, 1872, 4463, 4464: H. R. 66; 43 Cong. 1 sess. 

 '2 Cong. Bee, Dec. 10, 1873, 122; Dec. 15, 1873, 207. 



73 Stat. 18, 21. 



