PTTBLIO LANDS COMMISSION. 5 



erly administered it may be used for purposes for which it was never 

 intended, and we recommend its repeal. 



If the timber and stone act is repealed some legislative enactment 

 ■will be necessary providing for acquiring timber upon the public lands. 

 The manner in which timber upon Indian lands has recently been dis- 

 posed of suggests a plan for the disposition of this timber upon the 

 public lands. The timber is advertised and sold to the highest bidder, 

 with the result that the market price has been obtained. 



In December, 1903, there were two sales of timber upon the ceded 

 portion of the Chippewa Indian Reservation in Minnesota. At the 

 first sale, on December 5, the timber upon 103,027 acres sold for 

 $1,432,771, an average price of fl3.90 per acre. At the second sale, 

 on December 28, 95 per cent of the timber upon 72,856 acres sold for 

 $1,218,132, an average price of $16.70 per acre. The amounts to be 

 received from the various purchases are calculated upon the estimated 

 amount of timber upon the land at a stated price per thousand feet, 

 "board measure, but the payments will be based upon an actual scale of 

 the logs when cut. Logging operations now in progress indicate that 

 more than the estimated amount of timber will be cut from these lands.; 

 It will be observed that but 95 per cent of the timber was sold at the 

 last sale, the remaining 5 per cent being reserved for reforestation. * 



The average price per acre of both sales is $15.06, and the land is 

 retained for subsequent disposition. Had this land been disposed of 

 under the timlser and stone act the price would have been $2.50 per 

 acre for both land and timber. Under these sales the timber on 175,883 

 acres sold for $2,650,903, and the Government still owns the land. If 

 this land had been disposed of under the timber and stone act the 

 Government wonld have received for both land and timber the sum of 

 $438,707, a difference of $2,211,196. 



Some means should be provided by which the matured timber upon 

 the unreserved public lands may be sold, not only for the use of indi- 

 viduals, but also to supply the demands of commerce. There is now 

 a provision of law for the free use of timber in limited quantities for 

 domestic and mining purposes which meets the requirements of those 

 needing small quantities, but there is no provision for the sale of 

 timber except from forest reserves. 



RECOMMENDATION OP SALE OF TIMBER. 



We recommend the enactment of a law under which it shall be law- 

 ful for the Secretary of the Interior to sell to the highest bidder, at 

 pu'blic outcry or otherwise, under such rules and regulations and sub- 

 ject to such conditions and restrictions and in such quantities as he ma,y 

 prescribe, the right to cut and remove, within such period of time as 

 he may fix, any timber from any unappropriated, nonmineral, surveyed 

 public lands, after first having had such timber duly appraised, and 

 after giving public notice of the time, terms, manner, and place of such 

 sale; that he shall have power and authority to reject any and all bids 

 offered at any such sale, and that it shall be unlawful for any purchaser 

 at such sale to sell, transfer, assign, or in any manner alienate the rights 

 secured by him under this act, except as authorized by said Secretary; 

 that the act entitled "An act for the sale of timber lands in the States 

 of California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington Territory," approved 

 June 3, 1878, and all acts amendatory thereof be repealed, and that no 



