THE PERIOD FROM 1878 TO 1891 73 



to indicate a desire to secure honest administration. The applicant 

 was required to file with the register a "sworn statement" that the 

 iland was unfit for cultivation and valuable chiefly for its timber; 

 ;that it contained no deposits of gold, silver, cinnabrfl-, copper, or 

 coal ; that he had made no other applications under the act ; that he 

 did not desire to purchase the land on speculation, and that he had 

 fnot made any agreement or contract for sale to anyone else. Further- 

 more, the testimony of two disinterested witnesses was required to 

 support the allegations of the applicant. These witnesses were re- 

 quired to swear that they knew the facts to which they testified, from 

 personal inspection of the land.^" 



The limitation of 160 acres of land to each purchaser was a char- 

 acteristic sample of attempts by Congress to block the action of 

 economic law, and its failure was assured from the beginning. One 

 hundred and sixty acres, the "one family farm," is perhaps the most 

 efficient unit in ordinary agriculture, but in the management of timber 

 lands the most economical unit is a tract of thousands of acres, in 

 some regions and under some circumstances, perhaps hundreds of 

 thousands of acres. Such a tract permits the construction of efficient 

 logging equipment, insures a timber supply for the life of an efficient 

 mill, thus making possible the most economical lumbering operations. 

 Also a single large tract of timber can be far more cheaply and effec- 

 tively protected from fire than a number of smaller tracts — a very 

 important consideration in view of the great expense involved in fire 

 protection. Congress was following out a very unwise policy in dis- 

 posing of timber lands under any circumstances, but doubly so in 

 trying thus to dispose of them in 160-acre plots. ^^ 



37 Report, Sec. of Int., 1881, 39. 



3S It was not the western men alone who failed to see the folly of selling timber 

 land in 160-acre plots. Almost everyone in Congress thought that 160 acres was the 

 ideal unit. Thus in the debates on the bill to open up the southern lands in 1876, 

 almost no one seemed to have any clear conception of the economic principles that 

 were eventually to determine the character of the lumber business and the size of 

 tim])er holdings. Edmunds and Boutvvell recognized that the land should not be 

 sold at all, but no one pointed out clearly that the 160-acre tract could never be 

 the basis of an efficient lumbering business. 



So in the debates on Holman's bill of 1888, almost everyone seemed to cling to 

 tlie 160-acre plot for the sale of timber. Holman himself always favored small units 

 in the lumber business and seemed to think that legislation could secure this con- 

 dition. Like almost all the men in Congress, he failed to see that large tracts of 



