THE PERIOD FROM 1878 TO 1891 83 



In addition to the mill owner, timber contractor, and speculator, 

 there was a class of depredators whose operations in the South were 

 perhaps even more destructive — the turpentine distillers. To obtain 

 the crude material to supply their works, these operators boxed the 

 trees on thousands of acres, killing them in a few years.*^ 



It was difficult to get any sentiment for law enforcement in the 

 timber regions of the country. Senator Wilson of Washington once 

 described in the Senate the difficulties that always stood in the way 

 of protecting the western timber from trespass. "I recollect very well 

 a few years ago," he said, "a special agent of the General Land Office 

 came to our town who said he was going over to investigate some 

 timber land depredations on Badger Mountain. I said to him, 'When 

 you get over there, you will find a very beautiful valley of 300,000 

 acres of land, and you can see that every farmhouse and all the build- 

 ings there are built of timber taken from Badger Mountain.' I said, 

 'You go to the town of Waterville, with a thousand people, and you 

 will find the courthouse and all the buildings there are built from 

 timber taken from Badger Mountain ; and if you think you can get 

 a verdict, you had better try it.' He did try it, but he did not suc- 

 ceed."*'' 



TRESPASS BY RAILROADS 



Among the most extensive depredations on the public timber were 

 those by the railroads, in some cases under cover of their right to 

 take materials for construction ; in some cases relying on unsurveyed 

 land grants ; sometimes through a fraudulent use of the indemnity 

 laws of 1870 and 1874 ; and often with no pretense of legality. 



Under a very liberal interpretation of the Right-of-Way Act, some 

 of the railroads took vast amounts of timber for construction pur- 

 poses. Secretary of the Interior Teller ruled that the phrase, "adja- 

 cent to the line of road," applied to timber growing anywhere within 

 iifty miles of the track, and even beyond the terminus of the road. 

 The railroads assumed further that the phrase "construction pur- 

 amounts of timber in the Adirondack Mountains. {Forestry and Irrigation, June, 

 1907, 282: Outlook, Mar. 30, 1912, 729.) 



o"^ Report, Land Office, 1881, 376; Proceedings, Am. Forestry Assoc, 1894-95- 

 96, 6. 



«2 Cong. Bee, May 6, 1897, 910. 



