THE TIMBER CULTURE LAW. 153 



soil, and by the time the trees are large enough to require more moist- 

 ure the subsoil has been wet down to a depth of three or four feet and 

 eventually, much deeper, giving the larger trees all the moisture they 

 will finally need when attaining such size as to need a great deal of 

 moisture. 



Our experience and observation for the past eighteen years leads 

 us to believe that the timber culture act is really one of the easiest and 

 cheapest methods of acquiring a hundred and sixty acres of land and 

 that the fortunate possessor of a claim of this character can well afford 

 to meet the easy requirements of the act, and plant and maintain ten 

 acres of thrifty timber, which shall be an advantage to the community 

 and ultimately a benefit to the climate as well as financially advanta- 

 geous to the planter of the claim. I should very much regret to see 

 this beneficent act repealed, because, in our whole state of Nebraska, 

 there has annually been planted on timber claims not less than 50,- 

 000,000 trees, and our experience in the business leads us to believe 

 that the repeal of the timber culture law would cut down the annual 

 planting of forest trees in Nebraska to less than one-fourth of the 

 amount now annually planted. 



Regarding the rulings of the department, that timber claims may 

 not be proved upon until the trees have been growing eight years. 

 We think this ruling was led up to by the too frequent habit of the 

 the owners of timber claims proving up as soon as allowed to do so 

 by the department, and too frequently neglecting the growth from that 

 time forward, and in many cases the groves did not contain enough 

 trees to shade out the annual growth of weeds, which not only dissi- 

 pated the moisture from the trees but increased the danger from the 

 annual prairie fires. With this in view it seems to me that the depart- 

 ment would be certainly justified in requiring that the cultivation of 

 the timber should be so thoroughly effective, and the stand of timber 

 such as would completely shade out the weed growth, so that it will 

 afterwards make the grove permanent and lasting value to the com- 

 munity, as well as the means by which the owner acquires 160 acres 

 of choice land. It seems to me that to accomplish the purpose in- 

 tended by the beneficent act known as the timber culture law, the 

 requirements of the department should be still more rigorous than 

 they have been in the past in regard to a complete stand of timber in 

 number not less than 13,500 for each ten acres, and these should be 



