The record-union., 1899-07-03

| In addition to this, 34,6SS,932 acres.
$4,000 square miles-or about one-third
the area of the State, records in office
of Surveyor Generals yet public
| land. These two aggregate 5000
square miles, much of which is CLASH
| fled as desert, land, but even this is
used many months of each year for
| pasturage; another large fraction is
mountain or rolling land sparsely tim
bered or covered with brush inter-
| spersed with forage plants, which
make it of great value for pasture.
| The policy Of the Government in the
control of this vast area has been
along one of two lines-absolute neg
! lect or absolute exclusion. After long
periods of neglect, spasmodic efforts at
protection have been made by sending
out special agent" from the East,
who generally knows but little of our
! forests and less of our climatic con-
resulted in the institution of suits for
| illegal cutting of timber" These have
! generally resulted in dismissal, or, in
rare instances, in the rendering of a
! judgment amounting to small per-
:, centage of the value of the timber
stolen. In some instances when active
and real examinations into the Illegal
Selling of lands, cutting of timber or
other abuses, have been instituted, the
agent has been recalled"
These efforts have, therefore, never
resulted in much good other than to
! check for a while the fraudulent ac-
| QUESTION of public land or the steal
ing of timber thereform. They have
never been the result of a we'll con-
| ooiva1 on1 c,1cta effort 70 nrotoct
! the public domain and to conserve the
| interests and wealth thereof.
! In one or two of the reservations, the
| opposite policy of absolute exclusion
has been systematically carried out; a
| force of cavalry has been sent up to
| patrol the reservations, and under the
| thorough discipline of army officers,
trespassing sheep herders have been
arrested, their flocks scattered and eff
| fective restraint inaugurated over a
| limited portion of the forest areas
| Neither of these policies is wise. The
! first condemns itself; the second fails
! to utilize the vast wealth of forest and
| pasture which these lands are capable
of yielding. 1t is doubtful whether any
| system of forest management con-
| trolled from Washington, and under
] an ever changing political system,
could be efficiently and wisely admin
! istered. There are great obstacles to
be overcome in getting rational con-
ception of the facts before Congress.
Eastern members, and even our own,
rarely have more than a general idea
of the facts, and are adverse to any
| policy of withdrawal of the public
domain from market" as long as there
is land of speculative value left.
Again. the climatic conditions of Cal
ifornia differ widely from those of
other portions of theS United States,
and present greater difficulties to for
est cultivation by reason of the alb
sence of summer rains. Our forest
flora are unique in the world; hence
! forest management here must be es-
sentially modified from that found adj
/ visable elsewhere. 1t would, there
! fore, require local and unique treat
ment special in its development, and
entirely different from what we must
expect from a Government which has
never undertaken the handling of for
est areas in a wise and statesmanlike
i manner.
The valuable timbered areas have
| long since passed to the ownership Of
| aggregations of capital or private
parties. In the Coast Range, it some
times happens that one million feet
board measure, of lumber stand upon
single acre; this, at a stumpage of
$3.50 per thousand feet. is worth