Arizona republican., 1898-03-10
Latest Instructions From the
 General Land Office
PROTECTION OF THE FORESTS
Confiscation of Wood and Pro-
 secutionS Ordered
Two Views as to the Imm ediats and Future Effect Upon Phoenix of the Enforcement of the Lately Resolved Instructions.

About two months ago MT. s. J. Holsinger, a special agent of the gen eral land office, was sent to this terri tory to investigate the cutting Of mes quite timber on public lands and to bring about discontinuance Of it. It was believed that this matter was set tied three years ago by a decision by Judge J. D. Bethune, sustained by the supreme court of the territory that mesquite was not timber within the meaning of the law protecting timber on public lands. The question was next raised in the prosecution of Deputy United States Marshal John Slankard, against whom suit was brought in the United States court at Solomonville. He pleaded guilty in order to shorten the procedure against him, but nothing occurred in the trial of the case to weaken the Arizona su- preme courts decision regarding mes quite. Slankard had established an extensive wood camp near Maricopa. He sold it to the Phoenix Wood con- pany, which not only bought up more wood there, but employed many Mexi- cans to deliver wood to the yard here.
 When MT. Holsinger arrived here he found the situation more serious than he had expected and declining to act at once, he furnished the land office with an account of the condi- tions, enclosing an allusion in a local paper to the old decision of Judge Bethune.
 He lately received the following ad- Commissioner Hermann, Who says: T am in receipt of your letter dated January 19, 1898, in which you en- close a clipping from Phoenix news paper issued January IS concerning the cutting of mesquite timber from public lands in Arizona and ask in- structions from this office in view of the decision (Bustamente xs. the United States), rendered October s, 1895, in the supreme court of Arizona, ruling that mesquite is not timber within the meaning of the law, Sec. 2461, U. s. Rev. Stat. The court, Jus tice Joseph D. Bethune, presiding, stating that It is a matter of common knowledge that mesquite is a brittIe, knotty, scraggy, fiberless, gnarled wood and can only be used for fire wood; it is used in the manufaclur of no useful article etc.
 Respecting the classification of mesquite your attention is cailei to Timber Defned,' page g, Compilation of Public Timber Laws; Case of U. S. vs. Stores and Another, circuit court southern district, Florida GA Fed. Rep. S24); the term timber as used in sec tion 2461, R. S., does not apply alone to large trees fitted for house or ship building, but includes trees of any size, of character or sort that may be used in any kind of manufacture or construction of any article
 "The botanical defniticn of 'tre5' as given in Webster's dictionary is a plant which is woody, branchad and perennial like a shrub, but of larger size, generally exceeding ten feet in height and of a single stock inst al of Q cluster The same authority also defines timber as that sort Of wood which is proper for buildings or for tools, utensils, furniture, carriages, fences, ships and the like.
 '"The Century dictionary ftates that mesquite is used for beams and under pinnings of adobe houses; for posts and fencing, for fuel and for furni ture. It is further described as an i'm rortant leguminous shrub or often tree, which reaches height Of thirty or forty feet. It also appears from the same authority that this growth is under the action of forest fires re- duced to a low shrub.
 "The American Cyclopedia says: The mesquite seldom grows more than thirty or forty feet high, and when well developed has a rounded head, but owing to injuries caused by insects and the parasitic mistletoe the trunk and branches are frequently ir- regular and distorted. In it's foliage it greatly resembles the honey locust; it is exceedingly variable, sometimes appearing as large shrub, forming dense thickets which from the abun- dance of spines are impossible, and at other times growing singly with well developed heads, and when viewed from distance appearing like an ap- pie orchard, so uniform are the trees in size. Were it not for the mesquite