The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-07-14
HOLDING Of LAND
GREAT MENACE
Few Men Have Twenty Per
Cent Are In The United
States
WILL CONTROL THE PRICES
When Supply Diminishes These
Will Have Monopoly; Condi-
ton Is Due To Loose System
of Grants In The Past; Gov
eminent To Go After Viola
tors Vigorously

WV vsSSs
Washington, d. c., July 12.-Con-
centration Of timber lands in the
United States in the hands of a few
owners is discussed at length I'M the
second and third parts of the report
of the Bureau of Corporations on the
Lumber Industry. submitted to Presi-
dent Wilson today by COMMISSIONS
Davies.
Two men hold 40 per cent of the
timber in Southwestern Washington,
the report says; five men hold SO per
cent in Western Oregon: six have 10
per cent in Northeastern California;
ten have more than half in the red
wood area, and in north central Idaho
four holders have so per cent.
The control of our standing tim
Der in a comparatively few enormous
holdings. speculatively held far IL ad-
vance OF any use thereof. and the
great increase in the value Of tim
Der, resulting in part from such
speculative holding, are underlying
facts Ia will ecom more and more
important clements in determining
the price of LUMBER as the supply OF
timber diminish s." says the report
Great Holdings by Few.
"The. main fact shown is that 1852
timber owners hold in fee over one
va ~ aild "Att VI I'm III
tire United States from the Canadian
TO the Mexican border. In many
States these 1854 own no lands at all
In the 900 tiInbered counties investi.
gated they wi one-seventh Of the
area.
These 1894 holders own 105, 600,
900 acres. This is an area four-ffth.
the size of France; or greater thar
the entire State Of California;; O.
more thar two and one-half times tn.
Ian area of the six New England
States. Sixteen holders W 1880,
900 acres, or nearly ten times the Ian
area of New Jersey. Three land
grant railroads own enough to Civ
10 acres to every male of voting ag
in the nine Western States where al
most all their holdings lie.
Not All For Cultivation.
mot all this land is suitable 70
agriculture. II the South and in tn
Lake States and in part of the Yves
81 large portion of it can be used 70
agriculture after the timber is re
moved; but in many parts of tn
West the land in mountainous an
adapted chiefly to reforeStatior
Much of the railroad-owned land out
side the timber regions is arid or sem.
arid.
I'm the Upper Peninsula of Mich
gan As per cent of the land is hell
iioStis III ltt, ny o. lIID wv leI
In Florida SO holders, (mostly timbe
owners) hold one-third of the Ian
in the entire State.
Lavish land grants and loose, il
enforced land laws are the historic;
background of the concentration
land and timber ownership shown
this report. A study of the presel
ownership Of 100000 acres of raj
road, wagon-road, and canal graz
lands, covering most of the granite
lands m the map area, and a lit
elsewhere. shows hat of these pa
ticular lands, granted long ago
single corporations apparently wit
the idea that they would be quick
sold to settlers, only 10 per cent a.
now distributed in small holding
E~ighty-fiye Ter cen are owned by IL
grantees or their successors, or !
large timber holders. OF $4,000, OF
acres granted 70 three western raj
roads in the sixties. the roads still r
tanned 40 per cent in 1910.
States Help Concentration.
Moreover the States appear to ha'
disposed of the various Federal gran
made to them in such q way as
contribute to the concentration
land n timber ownership. Flori,
is a striking example of this. Agai
the public-land laws, the cash-sa
law (now r~epealed) the scrip Law
and the homestead and timber al
stone laws operated, at least in til
Der regions, to transfer governme
lands directly or almost directly
great olders.
"N~inety-eight per cent Of t
1900, 600 acres comprised in the la1
est timber holding in the Lake Stat
was acquired in a wholesale mann
chiefly from tracts disposed of by t
government through grants to t
State or under the scrip and the cas-
sale laws.
This marked concentration in t
ownership Of land has two impO
ant aspects. The first is the con
tration OF control of the natural
sources. other than agricultural in