378 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



ways, there were enacted laws for the encourage- 

 ment of timber planting, either under bounty or 

 exemption from taxation, in Iowa, Kansas, and 

 Wisconsin in 1868, in Nebraska and in New York in 

 1869, in Missouri in 1870, in Minnesota in 1 871, in 

 Iowa in 1872, in Illinois in 1874, in Nevada, Dakota, 

 and Connecticut in 1877, and finally the federal 

 government joined in this kind of legislation by 

 the so-called timber culture acts of 1873 and 1874, 

 amended in 1876 and 1877. 



For the most part these laws remained a dead 

 letter. The encouragement by release from taxes, 

 except in the case of the federal government, was 

 not much of an inducement, nor does the bounty 

 provision seem to have had greater success, except 

 in taking money out of the treasuries. Finally 

 these laws were in most states repealed. 



The timber culture act was passed by Congress 

 on March 3, 1873; by this act the planting of 

 timber on 40 acres of land, or a proportionate area 

 in the treeless territory, conferred the title to 160 

 acres or a proportionate amount of the public 

 domain. This law had not been in existence ten 

 years when its repeal was demanded, and this was 

 finally secured in 1891, the reason being that, partly 

 owing to the crude provisions of the law and partly 

 to the lack of proper supervision, it had been 

 abused and had given rise to much fraud in obtain- 

 ing title to lands under false pretences. It is diffi- 

 cult to say how much impetus the law gave to bona- 



