36 annual report of 



Platform of the Friends of Forestry in Minnesota. 



Beginning about a century ago the Indians in Min- 

 nesota parted with their possessory title to the pine lands 

 to the United States at a low figure. The United States 

 took no pains to ascertain the location, quantity and 

 value of the timber, but from time to time offered it at 

 public sale, with the regulation that after the public sale 

 had continued for so many days the lands unsold could 

 then be purchased at "private entry" at #1.25 per acre. 

 This looked well on paper, but as a rule purchasers 

 waited till the public sale was over, and then, at #1.25 

 per acre, bought lands worth anywhere from |io to #75 

 or even more per acre. 



This system was discontinued about forty years ago, 

 since which time pine lands have been obtained of the 

 United States through the location of scrip; soldiers' 

 additional homesteads (devised not for the benefit of the 

 soldier, but for the benefit of the timber grabber), the 

 homestead law, and the stone and timber act — all and 

 each of which have been but a system of plunder. 



The value of the standing pine timber in Minnesota 

 which in the past fifty years has passed from the United 

 States into the possession of private parties has proba- 

 bly not been less than $200,000,000. Of this a few 

 million dollars worth, originally granted to the state, was 

 given to railroad companies to aid in the construction 

 of their roads. 



The records of the U. S. General Land Office, Wash- 

 ington, show that beginning with the year 1849 and up 

 to October, 1897, all that the United States had received 

 for. public lands in Minnesota, timber, agricultural or of 

 whatever character, amounted exactly to 17,286, 599.40. 



If there are any people who have profited or who in 

 the future hope to profit from plundering the United 

 States of pine lands, or who are the mouthpieces of 



