256 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



tary of Agriculture, however, it was always far from satisfactory to 

 many people in the West, who thought the reserves should be open 

 to anyone wishing to try to make a home there — who thought the 

 decision as to what was agricultural lands should rest, not with the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, but with the entryman himself. As Senator 

 Heyburn once stated it : "It is not within the power of the bureau to 

 determine whether a man can make a farm out of a particular piece 

 of land. If the land is agricultural land, the only man who can deter- 

 mine that is the man who is willing to go there and devote his energies 

 to making it a home and expend his effort in an attempt to do so." 

 Representative Rucker of Colorado expressed the idea in similar lan- 

 guage : "The man who wants a home, who perhaps has spent the most 

 of his days upon the farm, acquainted with soils, a long resident of 

 the West, knowing the adaptability at different altitudes for a given 

 kind of a crop, and willing to take his chances, is met with a denial 

 of his right by some youngster just from the city, or college life, and 

 is curtly informed the land is not suitable for agricultural pursuits."* 



EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE AGRICULTURAL LANDS: THE 

 NELSON AMENDMENT 



Within the past decade, repeated efforts have been made to secure 

 some modification in the law of 1906. The appropriations of 1912 

 were held up several weeks by a disagreement between the two houses, 

 largely on the question of agricultural lands in the national forests. 

 No sooner had the appropriation bill been brought up in the House 

 than Representative Hawley of Oregon launched a determined attack 

 on the Forest Service, for inflicting so many hardships on the "set- 

 tlers" whose "almost incredible heroism, toil, and suffering" had 

 brought civilization into the West. Martin of South Dakota suspected 

 that th^ Forest Service often appropriated the residences of home- 

 steaders for ranger stations, and offered an amendment to prevent 

 that. Three of the Colorado delegation, with Dies of Texas, Booher 

 of Missouri, and Fitzgerald of New York, expressed their disapproval 

 of the reserves on various grounds, while Mondell veered around to a 

 very fair and reasonable attitude, although still somewhat hostile. 

 After considerable debate the appropriation bill got past the House 



4 Cong. Bee, Feb. 10, 1911, 2291. 



