25 



to have been continuously cultivated to agricultural crops other than 

 native grasses, beginning with the third year of the entry and continuing 

 to date of final proof. Furthermore, commutation is expressly forbidden. 

 An interesting additional clause is inserted in this Act in regard to the 

 State of Utah, to the effect that on lands which have not sufficient water 

 upon them for domestic purposes, continuous residence is not necessary, 

 but the entryman may reside at such distance as will enable him to farm 

 successfully, "as the case may be. Moreover, he must show that he has 

 cultivated not less than one-half of the total area during the fourth and 

 fifth years after entry. 



Finally, the Tree Claim Act. From 18T3 until 1891— the year in 

 which it was repealed — a Timber Culture Act, or what was more widely 

 and popularly termed the Tree Claim Act, was in force. This Act, as 

 first passed, enabled every person to obtain not more than 160 acres of 

 land by planting 40 acres of timber and properly caring for it during ten 

 years. Later, the number of acres of timber required was reduced to ten, 

 and the period of cultivation to eight years. This law proved a failure 

 so far as the growing of trees was concerned ; but over 44,000,000 acres 

 of land were entered by this method. The Tree Claim Act was finally 

 abandoned on account of the numerous frauds which were found to have 

 occurred in connection with it. Settlers too often swore that their trees 

 were growing when they were all dead through lack of care, or killed by 

 frost, and so obtained the title-deeds to their homesteads. Nevertheless. 

 I am convinced that this law should never have been repealed. Surely 

 honest experts attached to the Land Department could have been detailed 

 to see that the trees were properly cared for ? To-day many progressive 

 farmers are planting trees for shelter and shade around their homesteads : 

 but even the kindest critic must feel that the Federal Government has 

 failed lamentably in not doing more to encourage the planting of shelter 

 belts in the great semi-arid regions of the West. In closing a most 

 instructive interview, the United States Commissioner of Lands remarked 

 ttiat, if a Tree Claim Law could be enacted on the treeless zones of South 

 Africa, with proper restrictions, it would doubtless prove of untold value 

 to the dry-land settler as well as to the country at large. 



Chapter III. 



TO THE DRY FARMS OF THE WEST. 



From Washington I returned to Chicago, where I visited the University 

 of that city and then returned to Minneapolis. My next journey was to 

 the dry-farms of the West.* I left Minneapolis en route for Texas, on the 

 North-western railroad, reached Omaha the same night, and Kansas City, 

 in Missouri, the following morning. It had been a week of snow and 

 slush in the North-west, and I was glad to find much milder weather in 

 Kansas, where the grass was green and the trees in blossom. For a whole 

 day we traversed the fertile State of Kansas, and I was much struck with 

 the evidence of agricultural prosperity. This is the more remarkable 



* 1 am indebted to Mr. E. C. Chilcott, Agriculturist in Charge of Dry-Land Investigations. 

 United States Department of Agriculture, for the admirable itinerary which he kindly planned 

 for me and to which I closely adhered. 



