9 
well as of the Pacific coast region, which should have been included in 
this discussion; whether a change from the present policy in regard to 
the remaining public domain would not better answer the purposes of 
the community at large—these questions now call for deliberate inves- 
tigation. 
That this need of a change of policy exists, especially in regard to the 
timber lands occupying the mountain regions of the Rocky Mountains 
and the Pacific slope, has been claimed and urged for many years by 
competent officers as well as by well-informed citizens. 
The reasons brought forward for such a change in regard to the Gov- 
ernment timber lands are partly of an organic, partly of a moral char- 
acter. 
In the present classification of lands, special regard to the existence 
of timber on the land is only given in California, Oregon, Nevada, and 
Washington Territory, where timber land not fit for cultivation may be 
sold in tracts of 160 acres, to any one person, at $2.50 per acre (act June 
3, 1878), forbidding, however, the purchase for purposes of speculation, 
the land only to apply to the exclusive use and benefit of the purchaser, 
and the title not to inure to a third person. It is well known that this 
act has not been of much practical value, and does not furnish relief te 
the settlers for whom it was designed. Under this act nearly 1,000,000 
(986,158) acres have been sold and are held by large corporations 
mostly. | 
The valuable timber lands in the Southern States have been mostly 
disposed of at private sales for $1.25 per acre, under the act of June 22, 
1876, by which the public land policy, which had been stated to be that 
of holding the land for actual settlers, was repudiated. In Alabama 
this avowed policy sustained another blow from the act of March 3, 
1883, by which the distinction of mineral lands was wiped out; and 
thus the door was opened for speculators, who have not failed to take 
advantage of the chance, and have bought many millions of acres of 
valuable timber for a small price. 
In the Rocky Mountain States and Territories, as well as in all other 
parts of the United States, all bona fide residents are permitted (act 
June 3, 1878) to fell and remove for building, agriculture, mining, or 
other domestic purposes, timber or other trees on the publiclands which 
are mineral and subject to mineral entry only, and on the land entered 
under homestead acts, and they are also allowed to clear for the pur- 
pose of cultivation and improvements only, not for sale, before the 
patent accrues to them, any timber on their entries. 
In addition to the grants of right of way and the land grants of alter- 
nate sections under the general right of way act and other acts to aid 
in construction of railroads, the railroad companies are allowed ‘to 
take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road the timber 
necessary for the construction thereof,” this right to cease at the expi- 
ration of five years after location, and, of course, after construction. 
