4 



87 



It is difficult ill ;i tliiuly-sctlled country to get proof that will convict of Betting 

 forest fire.s. 



In discussing the (i[uesti()n of forest nia niigeiniiut, European examples are not al- 

 ways valuable to us ; the conditions are very^dilferent and our difficulties are greater. 



The Government should take care of the forests on forest principles. 



In portions of the mountain region every alternate section s-hould be reserved for 

 forestry purposes, including the planting of forest tpees. 



All timber lands at the heads of streams capable of furnishing sufficient water for 

 irrigation should be withdrawn from market, and religiously preserved, i)rotected 

 and, when necessary, replanted. 



One-half of the public forest lands should be sold to settlers, and the other portions 

 placed under the care of experienced foresters and held by the Government forevef. 



Local forest officers should be appointed, with power to quell fires, make arrests, 

 etc. 



All timber lands should be sold, or else donated to the State, t© be disposed of or 

 protected under the State laws. 



In the arid regions timber lands should be donated to the respective States. 



The entire control of the forest growth (not the land) should be conferred upon the 

 State. The State, being more directly interested in the subject-matter, would be 

 better able to adopt such measures as would conserve its forest resources. 



There should be State reserves, with foresters who live in the forests and guard 

 them from fires and depredation. The timber should be disposed of under regulation, 

 and for the use only of the people of the State, regard being had always for the pres- 

 ervation of the forest, so that it be not denuded. 



Timber on public lands should be free to settlers, and no restrictions placed upon 

 lumbermen who cut timber only for home consumption. 



Settlers upon the public domain should be allowed to use timber from the public 

 lands for their homes and farms before and after perfecting their titles under the 

 homestead or pre-emption laws, regardless of the fact that the timber land may be 

 designated as '''mineral" or " non-mineral." This distinction is generally imaginary 

 and fictitious and has no value in point of fact. 



Land should be granted to actual settlers only under the homestead law. All other 

 laws for the settling or disposal of the public domain, including the act relating to 

 placer-mining claims, should be repealed. 



Every settler upon the public domain, when he shall have perfected his title to a 

 pre-emption or homestead entry, should be allowed to enter at Government price not 

 more than 40 acres of timber land in the same district, provided his pre-emption or 

 homestead entry shall not have a natural growth of timber upon it sufficient for itg, 

 necessities. 



Repeal the pre-emption law, and make it a misdemeanor for a homesteader to sell 

 timber, or suffer it to be cut, more than is absolutely necessary for domestic purposes. 



A system of leasing the public timber lands within clearly-defined boundaries, with 

 specific rights and liabilities, under penalties, guarantied by bonds of forfeiture in 

 case of non-compliance with the terms of lease, will prove the most efficient means of 

 promoting the interests of American citizens seeking homes in the Rocky Mountain 

 region. 



Persons cutting Government timber should be required to obtain a permit from the 

 local land office, with safeguards and restrictions to prevent waste or trespass. 



It would be better to allow charcoal-burners and the cutters of mine timbers to 

 take living timber from the public domain under proper restrictions, than to encour- 

 age the destruction of the forests by fire, in order that they may cut the deadened 

 timber as they please. 



Railroads should be required to use dead timber if possible ; no question of mere 

 convenience should be considered. Some method of chemical preservation should be 

 required where ties and bridge timbers are obtained from the public lands. 



