y 4 aa FORESTRY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
It will be seen that the testimony of these witnesses, government offi- 
cials and others, is uniform. They all state that in many instances the. 
law fails of its main object, the extension of the forest area of the country. 
The great evil pointed out by of all them is everywhere the same, viz., 
the sale or transfer of timber claims by the original claimants to spee- 
ulators and other parties. 
We have already called attention to the fact that of the 13,000,000 
acres filed under the timber-culture law, at least one-third has been 
canceled or entered under other acts. It is safe to say, with the state- 
ments herein given before us, that within a brief period, unless the law 
is amended, a large portion of the 9,000,000 acres remaining will be di- 
verted in a Similar manner. Admitting that the law is defective and 
that men are dishonest, and that they perjure themselves in regard to 
timber-culture claims just as they frequently do in regard to the home- 
stead filings, is it proven that the law utterly fails of its intention ; that 
it has accomplished no good purpose, or that it cannot be made to do 
so? The testimony does not show this. None of the land officers or 
others whose observations we have given recommend the absolute re- 
peal of the act; they simply recommend its amendment and its enforce- 
ment. The objection made that natural causes make compliance with 
the law impossible, in other words that trees cannot be made to grow 
with propercare, is nowhere sustained. Onthe other hand, the evidence 
is overwhelming that in all the country between the Mississippi and 
the Rocky Mountains trees will grow under cultivation, and that no 
man can yet say where the line is located beyond which forestry is un- 
profitable. f | 
From a mass of letters and reports from all part of this vast region 
we give the following: 
B. P. Hanon, of Reno County, Kansas, writes: 
In every instance in our knowledge where suitable varieties have been planted and 
properly cared for afterwards, they have grown well and proved satisfactory. 
Mr. E. E. Ballou, of the United States land office at Helena, Mont., 
Says: 
Iam fully satisfied that cottonwood, balm of Gilead, and box-elder, all of which 
are native, can and will be cultivated successfully here. The silver-leaf poplar also 
grows quite as thrifty as any of them. I should much regret the repeal of the tim~ 
ber-culture act, for I think it will prove a great blessing to this as well as other Ter- 
ritories if continued. 
Mr. D.S. Hall, register of the United States land office at Benson, 
Minn., says: 
No person who knows anything of western prairies will deny that planting trees 
thereon is the very thing of all others to make it a place to be inhabited by man. I 
speak from years of personal experience when I say that it is perfectly natural and 
easy for trees to grow on these western prairies. Where prairie fires are kept from 
running, groves of trees spring up atonce. I know of a grove of heavy timber, con- 
taining 60 acres, which stood in the center of the prairie, miles from any other tim- 
ber, in Renville County, this State. This grove was almost surrounded by water, 
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