Acts relating to Timber on the Public Lands. 91 



and rubbish. If this is done, the fertility is diminished, in a man- 

 ner comparable to that of agricultural lauds that will gradually be- 

 come exhausted, unless manures are applied. In no form of forest- 

 culture is there a tendency to general exhaustion of the soil by long 

 continued use, as we observe in agricultural cultivation; still there 

 may be an exhaustion of the local supply for the roots of trees in 

 particular places, and when this occurs the trees may languish and 

 die, or their growth may be checked. This sometimes happens in 

 ornamental planting, where very fertile soil is used for filling in the 

 holes, and where these holes are dug in a very poor soil. 



CHAPTER IX. 



ACTS OF CONGRESS RELATING TO TIMBER RIGHTS. 



Entry of Land under the Timber-culture Acts. 



331. By an act of Congress approved March 3, 1873, and amended 

 March 13, 1874, and again June 14, 1878, any person who is the 

 head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one, and 

 is a citizen of the United States, or who has filed his declaration of 

 intention to become such, may apply at the office of the Register of 

 a Land District, for the entry of any vacant land in such district as 

 a timber claim, upon the following conditions : 



332. The amount may not be more than a quarter section (160 

 acres) to one person, nor more than this amount can be taken up 

 by any person in one section. The applicant must make oath that 

 the land is composed wholly of prairie lands, or other lands devoid 

 of timber ; that the entry is made for the cultivation of timber, and 

 for his own exclusive use and benefit, and in good faith, and not for the 

 purpose of speculation, or directly or indirectly for the use or bene- 

 fit of any other person ; and that he intends to hold and cultivate 

 the land, and fully to comply with the provisions of the law. He 

 must also swear that he has not previously entered any lands under 

 the present act, or the acts of which it is amendatory. 



333. Upon the payment of a fee of $10, and the further sum of 

 $4, for commissions, if for more than eighty acres, or of $5 and $4 

 if eighty acres or less, he receives a certificate of entry, and may 

 occupy at once, upon the following conditions : 



334. If the entry is for 160 acres, he must break or plow five 

 acres the first year and another five acres the second year. The land 



