178 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



her school lands for $1.25 — later $2.50 — per acre.^^ The history of 

 the California school lands is not a particularly edifying tale. 



Railroad lands formed the great bulk of private holdings in the 

 forest reserves. In January, 1904, the Commissioner of the Land 

 Office estimated that over 3,500,000 acres of railroad lands were 

 included within existing reserves, while as much more was included in 

 reserves then temporarily set aside. 



Commissioner Hermann held in 1898 that the Forest Lieu Act 

 was intended to apply only to settlers or owners of agricultural lands, 

 who felt that by the inclusion of their holdings within the limits of a 

 forest reserve, they were deprived of the advantages that accrue from 

 intercourse with neighbors, from adequate schools, roads, etc. This 

 seemed a reasonable interpretation of the act, but the following 

 year. Secretary Hitchcock held that the act applied to "any tract 

 covered by an unperfected bona fide claim under any of the general 

 laws of the United States, or to which the full legal title has passed 

 out of the government and beyond the control of the Land Depart- 

 ment hy any means which is the full legal equivalent of a patent." 



Thus railroad lands, upon survey and patent, became immediately 

 available bases of exchange under the provisions- of the law. If the 

 railroads did not see fit to take advantage of the exchange provisions 

 of the law, they could dispose of their lands at an enormously increased 

 price because of the privilege of selecting lieu lands. According to a 

 decision of the Secretary of the Interior, owners of land within the 

 reserves might even strip it of timber and then relinquish it and select 

 other land elsewhere.^* 



The difficulties experienced in connection with these selections neces- 



33 Ott^Zoofc/ Nov, 23, 1912, 665 et seq.; Feb. 8, 1913, 289: Cong. Bee, Mar. 3, 

 1913, 4823. 



^i Report, Sec. of Int., 1898, 89: "Land Decisions," 28, 328, 521: H. Report 

 2233; 58 Cong. 2 sess., p. 5. The first lieu selections of the Northern Pacific in 

 Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, were made by the company itself and 

 most of the land was afterward sold to the Weyerhauser Timber Company; but 

 the latter practice of the Northern Pacific was to sell its rights in the form of 

 scrip, leaving the purchaser to select the land. In the case of the Atlantic and 

 Pacific grant in New Mexico and Arizona, about 735,000 acres of lieu land scrip was 

 secured and located by the Santa Fe Pacific — the successor to the Atlantic and 

 Pacific, and by several other corporations and individuals. ("Lumber Industry," 

 I, 229, 242; II, 77, 78.) 



