250 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



the lands into power-site lands, timber lands, and agricultural lands ; 

 and provides different rules for the disposition of each class. Power- 

 site lands are to be retained by the government. Timber lands are to 

 be stripped of their timber, and then are to fall into class three as 

 agricultural lands. The timber is to be sold by the Secretary of the 

 Interior, in cooperation with the Secretary of Agriculture, under 

 such plans and regulations as he may consider wise, as rapidly as 

 "reasonable prices" can be secured in a "normal market." All lands 

 other than power-site and timber are to be classed as agricultural, and 

 these are to be disposed of under the law applying to land released 

 from national forests, $2.50 being charged for the land, except for 

 cleared timber lands, which are given free of all charge. No commu- 

 tation is permitted. 



The main fund arising from the sale of timber and lands is to be 

 disposed of as follows: first, the Southern Pacific is to receive an 

 amount sufficient to bring its receipts up to the $2.50 per acre 

 intended in the original granting act; second, 25 per cent of the 

 remainder is to go to the state of Oregon for an irreducible school 

 fund; third, another 25 per cent is to go to the various counties 

 involved, for roads and highways ; fourth, 40 per cent is to go to the 

 reclamation fund, for the reclamation of arid lands ; and, finally, 10 

 per cent drips into the United States treasury. 



In several ways this statute was unwisely drawn. In the first place, 

 it proceeds on the assumption that all of the lands involved are agri- 

 cultural lands, or will become such as soon as the timber is removed, 

 while all the evidence available indicates that many of the timber lands, 

 perhaps most of them, are rough mountain sides that will never be 

 fit for cultivation. There is no provision that looks to the reforesta- 

 tion of these natural forest lands. There is no recognition of the 

 possibility that they may grow another crop of timber. 



In the disposition of the fund arising, the provisions are unduly 

 generous to the state of Oregon. Half of the fund goes direct to the 

 state or to the counties in which the lands are situated, while 40 per 

 cent more goes to the reclamation fund, and on this fund Oregon will 

 probably have some priority of claim. Only 10 per cent is to go to the 

 United States treasury, although $100,000 had to be appropriated 

 immediately for the expenses of classifying the lands'. In its generosity 



