88 
The timber-culture act is inoperative, and offers facilities for fraud. 
The good results of the timber-culture law overbalance all objections to it. An in- 
spection of eavh claim before a patent issues would insure compliance with the law 
and prevent frand. 
The following extracts give valuable hints on one side of the question: 
[Extract from a recent report (1886) of Hon. S. T. Houser, governor of Montana Territory, to the Sec. 
retary of the Interior. ] 
There seems, at least in one branch of Congress, a purpose to set aside a large por- 
tion of the forest-clad sections of our Territory for permanent forest reservations, 
with a view to protect the fountain heads of the great continental rivers. Under 
proper regulations and provisions for needed care such reservations might be of great 
use and value. But it must be remembered that there is no timber in this region save 
that which grows in the mountains where these rivers rise. If this country is to be 
occupied and developed, these forests will, to some extent, have to be put under trib- 
ute for various domestic and mining purposes and uses. It must be further remem- 
bered that this entire region is metalliferous, and it would not be wise to exclude 
from these forest reservations all explorations for mines. 
Owing, no doubt, toa want of knowledge of our peculiar situation and the pur- 
poses of the laws of Congress, adopted in 1878, in reference to the cutting of timber 
on mineral lands in the Rocky Mountain States and Territories, there have been 
many seizures for violation of law during the past summer, and many instructions 
and interpretations and applications of the law that have generally been regarded by _ 
our people as unwarranted and fatal to their interests. Under the regulations since 
prescribed by your Department it is believed that all conflict and irritation will dis- 
appear, unless too restrictive an interpretation or construction is attached to the 
words of the law confining its operations to mineral lands. 
[Extract from the report, for the year 1886, of Hon. E. A. Stevenson, governor of Idaho Territory, to 
the Secretary. of the Interior. ; 
The thanks of the people of Idaho Territory are due to the Department of the Inte- 
rior for the modification of rules 2 and 3 concerning the felling of timber, as secured 
by the circular of August 5, 1836. The modification was well-timed and is gratefully 
received ; but there are still some regulations in force in the Department that work 
great injury in the Territories of the Far West. Idaho is blessed with limitless forests 
of timber, which are of incalculable value in this western country—a great portion of 
whose area consists of barren and treeless plains. To enable settlers to cultivate and 
redeem these desert plains lumber must be readily accessible, else their eftorts to build 
homes would be unsuccessful. Many ofthesettlers are poor, having expended their all 
in securing their land and in improvements. Under the rules and regulations of the 
Interior Department the purchaser must enter into a certaiu written agreement with 
the lumberman, and must, further, file with the mill-owner a certificate, under oath, 
that he purchases such lumber exclusively for his own use. This formality must be 
gone through with every time a settler desires a little lumber. It is a great incon- 
venience. Then, again, it is a matter of expense, for the oath must be taken before 
some magistrate qualified to administer oaths, and fees must be paid therefor. To 
the poor settler this extra expense is a matter of some consequence. Such mag- 
istrates are not often, in this new country, in close proximity to the saw-mills. The 
natural] obstacles encountered by settlers on this desert land are severe enough with- 
out additional ones being put upon them by the Government. It is a source of great 
benefit to our country that this land be settled up, and to this end the policy of the 
Government should be to remove obstacles from the path of the honest settler, not 
seek to retard his efforts by impracticable regulations. There are in this Territory 
great forests, suffivient to supply the home consumption without any apparent effect 
on their extent. 
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