CHAPTER VIII 



FORESTRY AND GOVERNMENT 



GOVERNMENT may have an interest in for- 

 estry matters in two different ways : It may 

 be the owner of forests, or it may find that the 

 general welfare of the country is seriously affected 

 by the manner in which the forests are managed, 

 and therefore desire to regulate such management 

 to a greater or less extent. 



As everybody knows, the government of the 

 United States has from its incipiency been the 

 greatest land-owner of the country. A very large 

 part of its land was and still is covered with original 

 forests. The policy of Congress has been until 

 very lately to dispose of these public lands to 

 private parties to be utilized for agricultural, gra- 

 zing, mining, or lumbering purposes, as the case 

 might be. At first the lands were sold outright, a 

 policy which resulted in large tracts going into the 

 hands of speculators. Then various devices were 

 tried for making sure of the lands being taken up 

 by actual settlers. The most important of these 

 devices was the Homestead Act of 1862, with its 

 amendments, by which patents to not to exceed 

 160 acres are issued, without payments except a 



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