6 THE AMES FORESTER 



its object the control and ownership of the Nation's forests. 

 On the other side, was a large number of lumbermen, with 

 their cruisers and dummy entrymen, who were seeking to se- 

 cure timber to furnish a future supply of lumber for the future 

 big sawmills of the Northwest. In other places big cattlemen 

 employed dummy entrymen in order to secure ownership and 

 control of timber, water, and range. The matter was termi- 

 nated by the issuance of a series of proclamations March 1-4, 

 1907, inclusive, at which time approximately 17,000,000 acres 

 of the most valuable timberland in the Northwest was added 

 to the National Forests. 



This boundary work was the first rude attempt at classifying 

 public lands for National Forest purposes. It was followed by 

 the Forest Homestead Act, which was passed June 11, 1906, 

 and provided for the listing and opening to homestead entry of 

 all lands within the exterior boundaries of the National Forests 

 found to be chiefly valuable for agriculture. This law author- 

 ized and empowered the Secretary of Agriculture, upon appli- 

 cation or otherwise, to examine and list with the Department 

 of the Interior for homestead entry in tracts not exceeding 160 

 acres in area and not more than one mile in length, lands in 

 the National Forests which in his opinion are chiefly valuable 

 for agriculture and not needed for public purposes, and the 

 listing of which will not injure the National Forest interests. 



This law was a boon to the mountaineer of the west, in that 

 it provided a means whereby land might be filed upon and 

 patent secured in advance of the extension of the regular public 

 land surveys. It had another feature particularly adapted to 

 rough, mountain regions in that it provided for metes and 

 bounds surveys, thereby making it possible to secure the good 

 land, where conformity to 40 acre legal subdivisions might 

 throw considerable poor, rough land into the 160 acre total. 



The first applicants under the Forest Homestead law were 

 usually "squatters", or settlers who had taken up land before 

 the forests had been set aside for public use. These naturally 

 divided themselves into two classes: (1) Those who had set- 

 tled for farm purposes; (2) Those who were after the timber. 

 They were at the two extremes. The agriculturist had the 

 best farm land in the Forest, since he was early on the ground 



