single trees here and there, but at least depredations on a large scale. To this end, however, it is necessary that Congress, by an appropriation for this purpose, to be immediately available, enable this department to keep the agents in the field, and also to provide a more speedy and effective system for the seizure and sale of logs, lumber, or turpentine, cut or manufactured from timber on the public lands, than is now provided by existing laws. I would also recommend that section 4751 of the Revised Statutes be so amended as to provide that all penalties and forfeitures incurred under existing laws for cutting timber on the public lands, except trespasses committed on lands reserved for naval purposes, shall be sued for, recovered, and accounted for under proper regulations by the Secretary of the Interior.

The enforcement by this department of the policy above stated has called forth remonstrance from several parts of the country where seizures were made. Lumber-merchants, saw-mill owners, and timber-operators in some of the timber districts complained that private property had been or was apt to be seized together with logs wrongfully taken from the public lands of the United States, and that, by the proceedings carried on, business in certain localities would be severely injured and many laboring people put out of work. The agents of this department are instructed to use the utmost care in respecting private property; and, as far as the department is informed, those instructions have, a very few trifling and promptly corrected mistakes excepted, been strictly obeyed. As to the injury done to business, if that business consists in wrongfully taking timber from the public lands of the United States and manufacturing it into lumber and selling it, it is just the business which it is the duty of this department to suppress for the protection of the public interest.

Other complaints came from some of the mining States and Territories, setting forth that the majority of their lands not having been surveyed nor being adapted to agriculture, and the timber lands not being open to purchase, the people of those States and Territories cannot obtain the timber necessary for their mining operations and smelting-works, nor even fuel for their homes, unless they take it from the public lands. This complaint is certainly entitled to consideration, and, with due regard for the equities of the case, the department has abstained from all criminal prosecutions and caused seizures to be made or suits commenced only where timber had been taken from the public lands in large quantities for sale to railroad companies or smelting-works, or the supply of the market on a large scale. In such cases, also, the plea has been made that railroad-ties, building-timber, and fire-wood for running smelting-works could not be obtained in any other way, except from a great distance at large expense. This is true; but it is also true that those who have supplied themselves, without authority of law, from the public lands should at least be held to pay a fair price for the property so taken, as that kind of property must be paid for elsewhere, and

for this the department affords them an opportunity until by proper legislation they are enabled to obtain the necessary supply of timber and fire-wood in a legal way.

Moreover, nowhere is a wasteful destruction of the forests fraught with more dangerous results than in mountainous regions. The timber grows mostly on the mountain-sides, and when these mountain sides are once stripped bare, the rain will soon wash all the earth necessary for the growth of trees from the slopes down into the valleys, and the renewal of the forests will be rendered impossible forever; the rivulets and water-courses, which flow with regularity while the forest stands, are dried up for the greater part of the year, and transformed into raging torrents by heavy rains and by the melting of the snow, inundating the valleys below, covering them with gravel and loose rock swept down from the mountain-sides, and gradually rendering them unfit for agriculture, and, finally, for the habitation of men. Proper measures for the preservation of the forest in the mountainous regions of the country appear, therefore, of especially imperative necessity. The experience of parts of Asia, and of some of the most civilized countries in Europe, is so terribly instructive in these respects that we have no excuse if we do not take timely warning.

To avert such evil results, I would suggest the following preventive and remedial measures: All timber-lands still belonging to the United States should be withdrawn from the operation of the pre-emption and homestead laws, as well as the location of the various kinds of scrip. Timber-lands fit for agricultural purposes should be sold, if sold at all, only for cash, and so graded in price as to make the purchaser pay for the value of the timber on the land. This will be apt to make the settler careful and provident in the disposition he makes of the timber. A sufficient number of government agents should be provided for to protect the timber on public lands from depredation, and to institute to this end the necessary proceedings against depredators by seizures and by criminal as well as civil action.

Such agents should also be authorized and instructed, under the direc tion of the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agricult ure, to sell for the United States, in order to satisfy the current local demand, timber from the public lands under proper regulations, and in doing so especially to see to it that no large areas be entirely stripped of their timber, so as not to prevent the natural renewal of the forest. This measure would enable the people of the mining States and Territories to obtain the timber they need in a legal way, at the same time avoiding the dangerous consequences above pointed out.

The extensive as well as wanton destruction of the timber upon the public lands by the willful or negligent and careless setting of fires calls for earnest attention. While in several, if not all, of the States such acts are made highly penal offenses by statute, yet no law of the United States provides specifically for their punishment when committed upon the public lands, nor for a recovery of the damages thereby

sustained. I would therefore recommend the passage of a law prescribing a severe penalty for the willful, negligent, or careless setting of fires upon the public lands of the United States, principally valuable for the timber thereon, and also providing for the recovery of all dam. ages thereby sustained.

While such measures might be provided for by law without unnecessary delay, I would also suggest that the President be authorized to appoint a commission, composed of qualified persons, to study the laws and practices adopted in other countries for the preservation and culti vation of forests, and to report to Congress a plan for the same object applicable to our circumstances.

I am so deeply impressed with the importance of this subject, that I venture to predict, the Congress making efficient laws for the preservation of our forests will be ranked by future generations in this country among its greatest benefactors.

DESERT LANDS.

A large majority of the lands west of the one hundredth meridian are unfit for agricultural purposes without artificial irrigation, and the area on which artificial irrigation appears possible is very small. The homestead and pre-emption laws are therefore practically inapplicable to lands of that class, for the simple reason that agricultural settlement on small subdivisions is impossible. Extensive tracts on the "plains," however, can be made useful as pasturage for the raising of cattle; in fact, they are being used for that purpose on a large scale. The stock-raising interest on the plains is gaining immense proportions, but it is carried on upon the public domain without the authority as well as without the protection of law, and the government derives no benefit from such use of the public lands. Some system should be devised to make these lands a source of public revenue, and to put the enterprise of the citi zens engaged in such pursuits upon a legal basis. The government directors of the Union Pacific Railroad quote, in their annual report to this department, a letter from a gentleman engaged in cattle-raising on the plains, of which the following is an extract:

Under existing laws, one man can only attain title to one section of land in a body within the Pacific Railroad limits, i. e., a man can purchase a full section from the railroad company, but it is surrounded on all sides by government land, which is only open to homesteads and pre-emptions. It has been fully demonstrated that lands west of the one hundredth meridian are only fit for grazing purposes, and can only be utilized as grazing-lands when held in large tracts or ranges. The quantity of land required to support an animal by grazing alone is so great that it would be impossible to purchase the lands at the government price, or at any price that would look reasonable. The result is, that no lands are sold, and the stock-raisers occupy the lands withont any legal rights, while the government and the railroad company get no compensation. One evil that grows out of this system is, that the stock-grower, having no defensible right to his range, does nothing toward improving or fencing it. His buildings and corrals are of the most temporary nature, and he is prepared at any time to move his herds wherever better ranges or less-crowded pastures offer.

I think the following plan would entirely counteract all the evils mentioned, and would make a return to government and railroad company from lands that otherwise

will always remain unsold and valueless. The government and railroad company jointly lease to responsible stock-growers all lands lying west of the one hundredth meridian of longitude in blocks of, say, from 50 to 500 square miles, at such an annual rental, and for such term of years, and with such other restrictions as will best protect the interest of the government and railroad company, and will give the stock-raiser such a right to his range as will protect him from encroachment, and warrant him in fencing his range, besides making permanent investments in corrals and ranch buildings. The arguments in favor of some such plan as this are so many, and the objections so few, that it seems to me only necessary to have it presented to Congress in proper form to insure its adoption. The enormous increase of the cattle-interest on the western plains, and the present chaotic state of the grazing system, demand that some intelligent action should be taken at once.

I concur with the writer of this letter as to the general object in view with regard to lands not irrigable. It appears to me that the system of leasing those lands would be preferable to that of selling them in large bodies, for the reason that it would leave open to the govern ment another disposition of them in the future, if such should become advisable. Instead of the suggested plan of leases to be made "jointly" by the government and the land-grant railroad companies to stockraisers, I would recommend that an arrangement be made with such railroad companies by which in desert-land regions the latter receive the even sections in addition to the odd sections on one side of the road, and release to the government the odd sections on the other, so that by the government as well as the railroad companies the land on either side of the roads be held in a solid body. If the system of leasing desert lands not irrigable be adopted, care should be taken so to regulate it by law as to prevent wealthy capitalists from obtaining temporary possession of very large tracts to the exclusion of stock-raisers of small means, especially in the vicinity of the great lines of transportation. It would be very questionable policy to lease "blocks" of so large a size as 500 square miles, to one party, as the writer of the letter above quoted suggests. While the homestead law is practically inapplicable to desert lands, its general object should not be lost sight of. It is a matter of public interest, not only that there be as much stock raised, but also that there should be as many stock-raisers accommodated, as possible, on the public lands of that description.

I would respectfully ask that the attention of Congress be invited to this important subject.

DESERT-LAND LAW.

Congress, at its last session, passed an act to provide for the sale of desert lands in certain States and Territories. This act provides

First. That citizens of the United States, and persons of certain specified qualifications, may file with the register and receiver of any land-district in which desert land is situated, a declaration of intention under oath, to reclaim within three years thereafter, by irrigation, a tract of desert land, surveyed or unsurveyed, not exceeding one section; and that upon payment of twenty-five cents per acre the applicant shall acquire an inchoate right thereto.

Second. That at any time thereafter within the period above named, upon making satisfactory proof to said register and receiver of the reclamation of said tract of land,

in the manner aforesaid, and the payment of the additional sum of one dollar per acre, the applicant shall be entitled to a patent for said tract.

Third. That all lands, exclusive of timber and mineral lands, which will not, without irrigation, produce some agricultural crop, shall be deemed desert lands.

While it is desirable that desert lands should be reclaimed for agricultural purposes by irrigation, and that proper encouragement be offered to that end, a wise regard for the public interests does not permit, wherever there is public land capable of successful cultivation in small farms, and of thus furnishing homesteads for people of limited means, that extraordinary facilities should be given to the capitalist to acquire such land for the formation of large estates. It is believed that the proof required by the above-named act, as to the quality of the lands, is not sufficient to prevent lands not desert from being acquired under it, while the entire absence of any provision prescribing what portion of land in the tract entered shall be irrigated, the cultivation and improvements which shall constitute reclamation, the penalties or forfeitures for abandonment, or sale of the applicant's interest before mak ing final proof and payment, renders the act liable to be taken advantage of for objects not contemplated by it nor compatible with the public interest.

I therefore recommend that the act be so amended as to require, before the entry is allowed, that the desert character and quality of the tract sought to be entered shall be established by competent testimony to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the district in which the land is situated, after notice by publication for four successive weeks to adverse claimants, if any there be; that the quantity or portion of the land in the tract to be irrigated, cultivated, and improved shall be specifically defined; that a neglect or failure to irrigate and improve the quantity or portion of the land in said tract specified, for the period of six months at any one time, shall be considered an abandonment of the same.

While a party who has made an entry under said law has no more right to sell or contract to sell, or in any manner encumber the right or interest which he has acquired, than a homestead or pre-emption settler has under either the homestead or pre-emption laws before final proof, still, as there seems to be some misapprehension as to the rights of applicants on this subject, I would recommend that the law be so amended as expressly to prohibit the selling or contracting to sell, or encumbering of the right or interest which the applicant acquires, until final proof and payment therefor has been made; and that, upon satisfactory evidence being produced of the violation of such prohibition, the applicant shall be deemed to have forfeited all his right and interest therein, and thereupon his entry shall be canceled.

PRIVATE LAND-CLAIMS.

The enactment of some law providing a more speedy settlement of the private land-claims in the territory (except California) acquired from Mexico by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, and the Gadsden