18

In Minnesota the efforts of the government have been directed toward the investi gation of timber trespasses committed several years ago, some of which have been settled without litigation, by the payment of stumpage to the amount of $2,634.87, which Seven cases of amount has been covered into the Treasury. Many cases of old trespass, involving a large amount of timber, are still pending in the United States court. recent trespass, reported by the agents, to the amount of 336,792 feet of timber, are being adjusted.

It has been reported that trespass to the extent of 15,000,000 feet of timber has been committed upon the unsurveyed public lands located with half-breed scrip, the trespassers not having first complied with the conditions of the law in regard to locating such scrip. Extensive trespassing has been reported along our northern national boundary line, where large quantities of lumber and a great number of ties for the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company have been taken and shipped across the line into Manitoba. How to arrest it is a grave question, in view of the great distance of the localities from the United States courts.

In Mississippi it has been found, from observations made by United States deputy surveyors in their connection with efforts made to suppress timber depredations, that in the southern part of the State, wherever it was found profitable to cut and remove government timber, it has been universally done. For more than twenty years the work of spoliation has been carried on, until now there is not a stream in the State emptying into the Gulf of Mexico and large enough for floating logs the banks of which have not been denuded of all their valuable pine timber.

The operations of the agent have been seriously interrupted by the prevalence of yellow fever and the establishing of quarantine. The State laws are such that it is extremely difficult to secure evidence necessary to the successful prosecution of trespass

cases.

Ninety-seven thousand one hundred and sixteen logs are reported as unlawfully cut upon public lands on the banks of the Hobolochitto, Red, and Black Creeks, and suits have been instituted for the recovery of the value of the timber and the punishment of the trespassers.

Report is made of trespass covering a large acreage of public timber lands by boxing the trees thereon for turpentine purposes.

In Missouri, extensive timber trespassing in Camden County and along the whole region of the Osage River has been reported, and will be investigated at an early day. It is estimated that last year 500,000 railroad ties were cut and rafted through the Osage River, a large proportion of which were cut from government lands pre-empted for the sole purpose of obtaining the timber thereon.

In Oregon, civil actions for timber trespass are pending in the courts, and one to the amount of $10,500.

In Washington Territory, extensive depredations upon the public timber are reported, and the agent is actively engaged in a thorough investigation preparatory to In cases where suits have been instituted, judgment has been reninstituting suits. dered in favor of the government to the amount of $2,951.50. Stumpage to the amount of $543.48 has been paid to the government.

In Wyoming and Utah, as well as Colorado, the manufacture of ties obtained from government lands and the sale of them to the Union Pacific and other railroad companies has become a great monopoly, one contracting party alone having cut and delivered thousands of railroad ties so obtained, from which they have realized vast sums of money. Numerous parties have had recourse to the unsurveyed public lands bordering on the tributaries of the North Platte River, and from the public lands in the one region bordering on the French and Brush Creeks no less than 1,000,000 railroad cross-ties have been taken. The sum of $20,267.19 has been paid into the United States Treasury, in settlement for 810,687 railroad ties unlawfully taken from the public lands. Mill owners and charcoal companies in Wyoming have been reported as trespassing heavily on the public timber, and one very extensive lumber and charcoal company is reported as having cut during the last season more than 1,000,000 feet of timber, and consumed nearly 80,000 cords of wood in the manufacture of charcoal, much of which timber was obtained from the government lands. In one small section of this Territory the United States deputy surveyor reports 200,000 cords of wood, 1,000,000 feet saw-logs, 40,000 fence poles, and 80,000 cross-ties as having been taken within a few years.

One suit pending at the last term of the United States court in Wyoming has been settled by the departinent, and none have since been instituted.

Parties seem disposed to cease trespassing where there is a probability of detection; otherwise it would be carried on as extensively as ever.

In Utah the cutting of public timber is carried on to a large extent, but mostly for domestic and mining purposes.

From Wisconsin, letters were received early in the past fiscal year, stating that public timber trespassers were becoming so numerous that honest lumbermen could not

compete with them, and that the evasion of the homestead law for the purpose of securing a color of title, under which timber is taken, was the worst feature they had to contend with, as nine-tenths of the homestead entries were made for the purpose of stripping the land of its timber.

In view of these facts, special attention has been paid to timber trespass in this State. Many new cases of trespass have been reported, involving 13,257,624 feet of logs, 767 cords of wood, 1,100 railroad ties, and 50 cords of tan-bark; 2,156,319 feet of logs and 262 cords of wood have been delivered to the special agents on demand.

A large number of persons have been indicted, and many suits are now pending in the courts. The sum of $3,363.08 has been covered into the United States Treasury on account of timber depredations.

In all cases where the agents could trace the logs cut by any trespasser upon public lands into the possession of any mill company or lumber speculator, they have notified said company or speculator that the government would hold them responsible for the logs, or the value thereof, until the cases against the trespassers should be legally disposed of..

Reports from the agents and others show that while trespassing upon public timber lands in this State has been extensively carried on for a number of years past, the material has changed hands so often and the trespasses committed so long ago, it would be very difficult to prove any cases now. Even in trespass cases of later years, it is very difficult to collect sufficient evidence, as many of the saw-inill owners are, or have been, connected with the trespassers upon public timber lands, and have agreed among themselves not to disclose anything; and information has been received that the woods have in several places been set on fire in order to destroy evidence.

Four special agents are endeavoring to obtain testimony sufficient to sustain the suits now pending, and are collecting evidence of new trespass cases for the purpose of instituting suits. There is no difficulty in ascertaining the fact that large quantities of timber have been unlawfully cut from the public land, as the agents report that at least 105,000,000 feet of logs are now collected in booms in the Wisconsin River, but it is difficult to ascertain when and by whom they were cut, and just what portion of them were unlawfully taken from public lands.

In the turpentine orchards of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, much injury results to the public timber by reason of frequent fires which either kill the trees or burn them so badly around the boxes that in a high wind they readily break and fall.

After the yield of turpentine has become exhausted, cattle owners sometimes spread fire ad libitum over the forests, and in one such instance by the raging of the fire for a single night more than a million pine stumps remained from what had been so many valuable pine trees before being boxed for turpentine purposes, no less than half of which were on government lands.

Reports have been received of wanton destruction by fire in public timber forests on the mountain slopes of Utah. In one case, 10,000 acres on unsurveyed land were thus destroyed. In the broken sections of country where there is much fallen timber, and no water, it is difficult to stay the progress of these fires. There are many theories as to their origin, some stating that they spread from campers' fires, and others asserting that proof can be adduced that they are the work of men using large quantities of fence poles, who deliberately set fires in the best groves, in order to deaden the timber and make it light and easy to haul away. If the fires are often repeated, the result will be serious in its climatic influences, and especially will the snows, which now often lie till August, become melted in June, and so destroy the value of the mountain streams thus swollen for irrigating purposes.

The powers of the department are so enfeebled by the limited appropriations for detecting and punishing timber trespassers that but little of the plunder and destruction of the timber on the public domain can be arrested. There is great necessity for more prompt and vigorous action than the government has heretofore taken for the protection of its interests.

The work during the past fiscal year of the special division of this office having charge of the business arising under the efforts of the department to investigate and suppress timber depredations is thus stated:

Letters received....

Letters written...

Covering pages in letter record...

1,229

735

553

RECENT STATE AND TERRITORIAL LEGISLATION HAVING REFERENCE TO FORESTRY.

In the Forestry Report for 1877 (pages 200-214) the principal State and Territorial laws for the encouragement of tree-culture and timberprotection were presented. In Kansas and Nebraska, States in which sylviculture is a subject of acknowledged importance, laws for encouragement by way of bounties had already been passed, and after a few years of trial had been repealed; in the former State by direct act, and in the latter by constitutional amendment.1

Within the past year, Iowa, which has been for many years prominently interested in forest-tree planting, has also repealed a portion of its bounty law, so far as it allowed the Boards of Supervisors to increase the premium offered for tree-planting to a sum not exceeding an annual exemption from taxation of $500 per acre. These seemingly retrograde movements appear to indicate that in a too earnest zeal for the promotion of a much-desired object, the legislators of former years had exceeded the limits which a well-considered law should have fixed, and that the laws now repealed afforded opportunities for pretended claims which had no merit to support them, and which, if allowed, would operate unjustly against other classes of taxable property.

This subject of protection and encouragement is one from which we can draw no information from European practice or precedent. It is peculiarly an American idea, and can only be settled by carefully observing the operation of our laws, and profiting by the errors which they bring to light. There are some very zealous advocates for tree-planting who insist that the profits of the enterprise are sufficiently ample of themselves to stimulate effort without further reward. Others would offer a limited exemption from taxation, either to the full value of the land planted or to the increased value that it may acquire by reason of planting. We consider the latter, for the present, a safe rule, and, in regions where there is no climatic or other obstacles to the growth of trees, a sufficient encouragement.

But instances will occur in all countries where exceptional difficulties may involve extraordinary expense, and where the public welfare may demand an outlay even much above the value of the land, as occurs in the panting of sand dunes and in the prevention of eroding torrents. In such cases the governments of Europe have sometimes granted considerable subsidies for the improvement of private lands, on the plea of public necessity, and with a due sense of justice to the rights of all. These facts only tend to show that general rules often have their exceptions, and that what may be desirable in one section of the country may be unwise in another.

In order to learn, as far as possible, the reasons for the retrograde legislation upon tree planting in Iowa, we addressed a special circular to the County Auditor (who is also clerk of the Board of Supervisors) of each county in that State, asking information in reference to the amount of planting that had been done under the act of 1868, as well in forest as in fruit trees and hedges, and, so far as known, the reasons that had led to the recent change.

The Constitution of Nebraska, adopted in 1875, while it forbids the exemption of private property from taxation, provides in section 2, article 9, as follows:

"The legislature may provide that the increased value of lands, by reason of live fences, fruit and forest trees grown and cultivated thereon, shall not be taken into account in the assessment thereof."

From the replies received we subjoin the following, as expressing a variety of opinions (mostly adverse to the theory of granting bounties for encouragement), and a considerable amount of statistical information upon this subject which has not hitherto been collected:

RESULTS AND OPINIONS

UPON THE SUBJECT OF TREE PLANTING UNDER STATE BOUNTIES IN IOWA.

APPANOOSE COUNTY.-No advantage has been taken of the laws for encouragement of tree planting, as the county is well timbered, and coal abundant.-(J. B. Maring, Auditor.)

AUDOBON COUNTY.-The following statement is correct as to total exemption, but in some cases the distinction between forest and fruit trees could not be determined:

The first exemption was made in 1875.-(Thomas Walker, Auditor.) BENTON COUNTY.-The following exemptions have been allowed during the last five years, on account of forest and fruit tree planting in this county:

The correspondent says: "As far as I am advised, persons plant forest trees solely to evade payment of tax, and give the ground just the necessary care in order to get the exemption provided by law. Our Supervisors have not provided for any additional exemption."—(E. M. Evans, Auditor.)

CASS COUNTY. About 2,000 acres or $200,000 worth exempted anunally by reason of planting forest trees, and 1,200 acres or $60,000 on account of fruit trees. No further exemptions or deductions provided by Board of Supervisors.-(Wm. Crisman, Auditor.)

CEDAR COUNTY.-The tax-payers in this county have not generally availed themselves of the law of 1868. In the year 1873, $410,000 was exempted. In the other years, from 1868 to 1878, the exemptions were trifling. From $8,000 to $9,000 a year have been exempted on account of fruit trees. In 1875 and 1876, the Supervisors made further allowances for hedges only, amounting to about $12,000 each year, but for no other years than these.

As to the results following the act of 1868, the correspondent says: "I do not think the law stimulated the planting of trees in the least. Sharp practices followed to secure the exemptions, especially by railroad companies and speculators who held large tracts of unimproved lands. They sent men with spades and switches, and stuck them down upon

their lands, and claimed exemptions on account of tree culture, and in some cases were successful-a technical compliance, while the spirit of the law was violated. This led to the repeal of the law at the last session of the legislature."-(Moreau Carroll, County Auditor.)

CLAY COUNTY.-The records of this county do not show the facts for which inquiry was made. The reply says: "I can state, however, that there are over 1,500 acres of trees planted in this county since the passage of the act of 1868. A great many frauds were practiced under the law, and for several years our Board of Supervisors has refused to allow any exemptions under that part of the act that was repealed last winter. I think what little tree-planting that has been done has proved a benefit as regards the climate, as the winter storms are not nearly so severe as they were nine years ago. Another benefit is found in the increase of rainfall, which I think has been brought about by the growth of trees. There are a great many groves of from one to five acres that are 20 to 25 feet high-the growth of five to eight years-and I think they exert a marked influence upon the climate."-(Ackley Hubbard, Auditor.)

CLAYTON COUNTY.-Almost half of this county having been originally timbered, no exemptions have been claimed, and no planting has been done in forest trees. About $5,000 a year has been exempted on account of fruit trees.-(M. Garber, Auditor.)

DELAWARE COUNTY.-The assessments being made only on every alternate year, the exemptions are then generally claimed. The following amounts have been deducted in these assessment years:

FAYETTE COUNTY.-The earlier records of planting under the exemption law in this county were lost in a fire. five years are as follows:

The statistics for the last

In 1876 some of the Assessors did not return exemptions. No further encouragement has been offered by the Supervisors on account of planting fruit trees.-(James H. Lakin, Auditor.)

HARDIN COUNTY.-No distinction was made in the records of this county between forest and fruit trees when the amounts were carried forward and summarized in the tax books. The total exemptions during six years were as follows: