Timber Culture Laws. 409 



the same time to forward the moTement. In 1867, the 

 agricultural and horticultural societies of Wisconsin 

 were invited by the legislature to appoint a committee 

 to report on the disastrous effects of forest destruction. 

 In 1869, the Maine Board of Agriculture appointed a 

 committee to report on a forest policy for the State, 

 leading to the act of 1873 "for the encouragement of 

 the growth of trees, exempting from taxation for 

 twenty years lands planted to trees, which law, as far as 

 we know, remained without result. About the same 

 time a real wave of enthusiasm regarding the planting 

 of timber seems to have pervaded the country, and es- 

 pecially the Western prairie States. In addition to 

 laws regarding the planting of trees on highways, laws 

 for the encouragement of timber planting, either under 

 bounty or exemption from taxation, were passed in 

 Iowa, Kansas and Wisconfiin in 1868; in Nebraska and 

 New York in 1869; in Missouri in 1870; in Minnesota 

 in 1871; in Iowa in 1873; in Nevada in 1873; in Il- 

 linois in 1874; in Dakota and Connecticut in 1875; 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, excepting the 

 case of the federal government, was not much of an in- 

 ducement; nor does the bounty provision seem to have 

 had greater success, except in taking money out of the 

 treasuries. Finally, these laws were in many cases re-, 

 pealed. 



The timber-culture act was passed by Congress on 

 March 3, 1873, by which the planting of timber on 40 



