8 
PAGS FORESTRY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VAELEY. 
, 
W. E. Powell, the general agent of the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint 
Paul Railroad, writing of the workings of the timber-eulture act, and 
referring particularly to the Territory of Dakota, says: 
The tree-claim law is shamefully abused-in that Territory. While it was made for 
the benefit of the actual settler, there is no chance for him to get a tree claim at all. 
They are all taken up in each township by speculators in less than twenty-four hours 
after the township is in market. They file them under fictitious names and hold them 
until a settler comes and buys them for $300 or $400 each, but, if they cannot sell them 
before improvements must be made on them, they relinquish them to each other or 
to some unknown parties, and get new filings on them, and they can keep them so 
maby years without any planting whatsoever, thus circulating reports among the 
ignorant that trees will never grow on prairie land. We will prove to the contrary. 
D.S. Hall, register of the land office at Benson, Minm., says: 
I have no donbt that the timber-culture law is, and has been, a cloak for covering 
large tracts of good land by parties who have no idea of ever complying with the 
law, as far as planting trees is concerned; but a slight amendment to the law, requir- 
ing the parties to promptly and strictly comply with the requirements thereof, would 
remedy the evil and stop the fraud. 
D. 8. Grimes, a gentleman of great experience in tree growing, and 
for many years a resident of Denver, Colo., writes: 
With the timber-culture act as it now stands, the incentive to planting is to secure 
title. The claimant does as little as possible to comp!y with the requirements of the 
law; he has no pride or sympathy with his work only as refers to obtaining title. 
The planting, protection, and healthy-growing of his trees for eight years is sworn to 
by interested and accommodating neighbors, hence this act is often taken advantage 
of. To repeal this act would do the West great injustice. It should be amended so 
as to compel a faithful performance of the contract on the part of the claimant. 
Instead of one entry of 160 acres to each section there should be two entries allowed, 
not to exceed eighty acres each upon a section of 640 acres to be planted to timber in 
the same proportion as provided for in 160-acre tracts. The advantage of dividing 
160 acres into individual timber entries can plainly be seen: 
1st. The timber is in two plantations instead of one, and perhaps located in oppo- 
site parts of the section, and will be benefiting twice the number of settlers. 
2d. One hundred and sixty acres are too much for a man of limited means to eulti- 
vate successfully; the area of land being so much greater than his ability to control, 
neglect and failure will result. 3 
A State or district forester of practical experience should be appointed by govern- 
ment, whose duty should be to give information free to all applicants upon the subject 
of forest-culture. In making final proof on a timber entry the forester should first 
make a personal inspection of the lands claimed under the act, andif the law has been 
fully and faithfully carried out, then his certificate should be sufficient evidence that 
the law has béen complied with. This will not only compel the party claiming land 
under the timber-culture act to be thorough in planting and cultivating, but will 
save to the government thousands of acres annually that would otherwise pass into 
the hands of dishonest claimants. 
‘ 
Mr. D. Pratt, an old resident of the plains country, sends the follow- 
ing suggestions: : 
I would first repeal the acts granting lands for timber culture and for pre-emption 
claims, and permit claims to be taken only under a modified homestead act. The 
changes I would suggest in the homestead act are as follows: I would allow a settler 
to take any number of claims he chooses, up to one section, 640 acres, with this 
proviso, that on each and every quarter section granted him he should plant, culti- 
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