special agents who are now in the field will have to be withdrawn. I am satisfied that any amount that may be appropriated will be speedily reimbursed tenfold. It will be some time before the timber lands can to any great extent be made available if legislation is speedily enacted, and in the mean time should there not be an appropriation for the purpose the timber could not be protected. It is also very important that the work of recovery for depredations in the past should be continued, for which purpose it is necessary to keep agents in the field.

Having thus given in brief what has been done in the past and what is being done now, it remains to examine the question with reference to the measures which should be adopted in the future for protecting and preserving the timber, or for the survey and sale of the remaining timber lands. In considering this question it may, I think, be safely assumed that the laws which are now in force providing for the disposi tion of the public lands are not the best, when applied to timber lands. Under these laws the timber bearing lands of great value, the desert lands of but little value, and good agricultural lands, are all held at the same price, and are alike reserved for homestead and pre-emption settlement, and alike granted away as subsidies to railroads and for other internal improvements, without regard to their fitness for the purposes for which reserved, or their value when granted. That some distinction and separate legislation in regard to the timber lands is now necessary, will not be questioned by any person who will take the trouble to investigate the question of timber supply and its probable duration under existing laws.

If the problem of future supply and the means necessary to secure it did not enter in, some legislation for the purpose of protecting the Government against mere pecuniary loss would be necessary. But the necessity of early adopting some policy looking to the preservation of timber for future supply is of so much greater importance that I desire to call your attention more especially to it.

Assuming, therefore, that present laws are inadequate, either for the sale or preservation of the timber lands, the inquiry to what end should future legislation be directed is now to be considered. Shall the timber lands be surveyed and sold at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, or shall they be appraised and sold at a fair valuation, or shall their extent and location be ascertained, and they be held by the Government, and the timber sold under such rules and regulations as may be provided by law, looking to a renewal of the forest by a careful preservation of the young timber, as is provided by law and carried into effect in some of the states of Europe.

The consumption and waste of timber in all the pine growing districts of the United States during the last few years has been so great as to cause the discussion of various plans to stay the waste and preserve the timber. Some thoughtful men, whose observations and experience in the lumber producing districts have been extensive, are of the opinion that the survey and sale of the pine lands would necessarily tend to their preservation, that a larger number of people would be interested in preventing and suppressing fires. Private ownership would doubtless do much to prevent waste by fire in districts where the lands are chiefly in private hands, and it may be also true that timber would be better guarded and husbanded if the timber lands were in the hands of men who paid even the small price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for them.

All past history shows only two successful methods of preserving timber in densely populated countries; the one, by the Government retain

ing the title to the land and exercising a watchful supervision over the sale and disposition of the timber, as in Germany, where large revenues are annually derived from this source; the other, through law of entail, as in England, by means of which a landed aristocracy holds the soil and has the aid of the strength and well executed laws to enable the preservation of the timber.

It is a fact which cannot be successfully denied that most of the pine lands in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, also those on the Pacific and Gulf coasts, have very little value as agricultural lands, and should be withdrawn from the operation of the homestead and pre-emption laws. Millions of acres have been taken under these laws which contemplate settlement and cultivation, whereon now no vestige of agricul ture or cultivation exists. These laws are used in the pine land portion of the country mainly as covers for fraud.

In an official report, which must necessarily be brief, a subject of the interest and importance of this cannot be discussed at such length or in such manner as to present all the arguments as to what should be done. The disastrous climatic effect résulting from the removal of forests might be urged separately as a reason for their preservation, if the scope or extent of an official report would warrant it. As I cannot enter this field of argument, for the reason aboye given, I will venture only to express the hope that you may be able to secure investigation by Congress into this very important subject. If by anything I can suggest, members of our national legislature can be induced to examine such authorities on this subject as "Man and Nature," or the "Earth as Modified by Man," by Hon. George P. Marsh, there is but little doubt but that suitable legislation would be the result. From the examination I have been able to give this question, I have concluded to recommend to you

1. That Congress should, by proper legislation, withdraw all lands chiefly valuable for pine timber from the operation of the homestead and pre-emption laws, and from all manner of sale or disposition except for cash at a fair appraised value, to be ascertained in such manner as Congress may provide, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. 2. That the Secretary of the Interior be authorized by law to sell at just and fair valuation, to be ascertained as Congress may direct, timber from the public lands in mining districts where it would be contrary to existing laws to sell the land by legal subdivisions, or in any manner except as provided in the mining laws now in force; also that he be authorized to sell the timber upon any unsurveyed land, not mineral, when needed for actual settlement before the public surveys are extended over such lands. This legislation is necessary, pending any other that may be deemed best by Congress.

3. That Congress be requested to enact a law providing for the care and custody of such timber lands as are unfit for agriculture, and for the gradual sale of the timber growing thereon, and for the perpetuation. of the growth of timber on such lands by such needful rules and regulations as may be required to that end. That Congress be requested to enact such laws as may be necessary for the appraisement and sale of such timber lands as it may deem best to sell; also providing for the care and custody of such lands until such time as they are sold; also to provide for more specific legislation for fines and punishment for trespass on the timber on all public lands, defining the nature of the action, and by whom to be brought; I would also respectfully suggest the propriety of legislation authorizing seizure by the United States marshal or his deputies, of timber cut from the public lands of the United States with

out first resorting to the tedious process of obtaining writs from the courts, and providing the method of sale of timber that may be seized and the disposition of the proceeds.

PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS IN THE STATE OF COLORADO AND THE TERRITORIES OF NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA.

The basis of the present mode of settling these claims is the eighth section of the act of July 22, 1854, (10 Stats., p. 308,) which in substance makes it the duty of the surveyor general of New Mexico to examine, under instructions by the Secretary of the Interior, and report upon the validity or invalidity of Spanish and Mexican titles therein, which said report, the act further provides, shall be "laid before Congress for such action thereon as may be deemed just and proper, with a view to confirm bona fide grants." This legislation applied only to that part of New Mexico which was included within the lines defined by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo until the act of August 4, 1854, (10 Stats., p. 575,) which provided that, "until otherwise provided by law, the territory acquired under the late treaty with Mexico, commonly known as the Gadsden treaty, be, and the same is hereby, incorporated with the Territory of New Mexico, subject to all the laws of said last named Territory."

Under this act the honorable Secretary of the Interior, in his decision, dated February 17, 1872, addressed to this office, held that the laws therein referred to were United States laws, including the above act of July 22, 1854, and hence that the jurisdiction of the surveyor general of New Mexico for the settlement of these claims extended over all the territory acquired by the Gadsden treaty, unless, in the words of the act of August 4, 1854, some other mode had been "provided by law." Since the date of this act the settlement of a part of these claims in the Gadsden purchase has been otherwise provided for by law.

By the act of February 24, 1863, (12 Stats., p. 664,) a part of the Gadsden purchase was incorporated into the Territory of Arizona, and by the same act authority was given for the appointment of a surveyor general for that Territory. By the subsequent act of July 15, 1870, (16 Stats., p. 304,) the provisions of the eighth section of the act of July 22, 1854, were extended to Arizona, and the surveyor general thereof was thereby clothed with as ample jurisdiction over grants therein as was vested in the surveyor general of New Mexico over like claims in the Territory of New Mexico.

The provisions of the eighth section of the said act of July 22, 1854, were extended to Colorado by the seventeenth section of the act of February 28, 1861, (12 Stats., p. 176,) so that, as the law stands, there are three Territories, New Mexico, Colorado, (since become a State,) and Arizona, in which there are provisions of law for the settlement of Spanish and Mexican titles, the protection of which is guaranteed by treaty stipula tions.

On the 25th of August, 1854, the Secretary of the Interior issued instructions to the United States surveyor general for New Mexico, as required by the legislation aforesaid, and that officer thereupon entered upon his duties, as prescribed by said instructions and the acts of July and August, 1854, and he has since transmitted to Congress a number of reports on this class of claims, some of which have been approved by Congress, and some of which are now awaiting action before either the Senate or House.

On the 9th of January and 11th of April, 1877, this officer issued instructions to the surveyors general of Arizona and Colorado, approved

by the Secretary of the Interior, respectively, on the 11th of January and 1st of May, 1877, directing those officers to proceed, in compliance with the requirements of said act of July 22, 1854, and supplemental legislation, to report to Congress the origin, nature, and extent of all private land claims within their respective districts. The issue of these instructions has been delayed partly because it was hoped that Congress would, in view of the evident necessities for further legislation, make some provision for a more speedy adjustment of these claims, and partly for the reason that the quasi judicial duties conferred by the acts aforesaid could not be exercised without injury to that branch of the duties of the surveyor general more properly appertaining to his office. During the past four years this office has, by reports and otherwise, repeatedly called the attention of Congress to the defects in the present system of settling these claims; and to these I add my opinion that the present method prescribed for the determination of the validity of these grants is not sufficiently speedy to do justice either to the claimants or settlers or to the United States. Nor does it secure the requisite ability for a proper settlement of such grants; nor does it provide for the settlement of all such claims, the protection of which is guaranteed by treaty.

It is now more than twenty years since the surveyor general of New Mexico commenced the examination of claims in that Territory, and he has since reported to Congress less than one hundred and fifty claims, though in 1856 he had more than one thousand upon his files, and of the number reported Congress has confirmed but seventy-one. From these data it will be seen that the probable date when the last of these thousand claims in New Mexico alone will be reported on and confirmed is in the far future.

In the mean time the claimants must wait without remedy, and their grants, which would be valuable if the title were completed by a United States confirmation or patent, must remain comparatively worthless, as is all property where the vendor offers for sale an incomplete title and prospective litigation.

The settler dares not settle and improve land lest it be subsequently found to be within the limits of some unconfirmed and unsurveyed grant; and the United States by such delay not only loses the sale of its land, but, judging from past experience with private land claims in other localities, the development of the resources of that country will create additional incentives for the manufacture of fraudulent title papers, with the view of securing public land therewith. Each year's delay, with the consequent death of living witnesses and loss or destruction of ancient records relating to land, adds to the probabilities that such forged and otherwise fraudulent title papers will pass without detection the scrutiny of the officers whose duty it may become to determine their character.

This delay is neither the fault of the surveyor general nor of Congress. A proper attention by the surveyor general to his executive duties leaves him but little time to attend to the examination of complicated and confused evidences of title, most of which are in a foreign language. And when the claim, having been reported to Congress, has been assigned to its appropriate committee, no member of such committee can conscientiously recommend that the United States convey the large tract of land which most of these grants contain without giving to each case that careful, patient, and protracted examination which belongs to the judge rather than the legislator. In the multitude of business pressing upon Congress during its session, it cannot be expected that these claims

will be attended to to the exclusion of business more important to the general welfare.

However able, competent, and valuable a surveyor general may be as an executive officer, or to conduct the usual business arising in a surveyor general's office, he may, and probably will, lack the technical legal knowledge which will enable him to cope successfully with volu minous title papers, complicated by the sophistry of skillful attorneys. Yet, under the present system, the surveyor general must surmount these difficulties, or they cannot be surmounted; for, however carefully Congress may re-examine his work, it must not be forgotten that Congress acts on a copy of the papers filed with the surveyor general, and hence cannot possibly know whether the grant be antedated or forged, or contains any of those defects which can be detected only by an inspection of the original record.

The practical result of this system appears in the confirmation of immense tracts of land, the location of which is now boldly asked by the claimants and their agents, not in accordance with the limits of their grant from Mexico, but within the limits of their grant as defined in the recommendation and report of the surveyor general, and as confirmed by Congress.

By the

The remedy which I suggest for the correction of these evils is the repeal of the jurisdiction now vested in the surveyors general, and the appointment of three or more commissioners, with full power to hear and decide upon the validity of all grant claims within the limits of the territory acquired from Mexico, except in the State of California, and with appeal from their decision to the United States courts. selection of men specially qualified for, and who can devote their time exclusively to, these duties, a more speedy and otherwise more satisfactory settlement will be obtained. It is believed that, if the papers in each case be put in order and the record made up by these commissioners, more speed will be obtained than if the courts, with their other important duties, are given original jurisdiction over these claims.

The present method of surveying these claims is also defective. At present, the whole weight of correctly locating a grant by survey rests with the United States deputy surveyor, who executes the survey in the field.

The greater part of these grants are bounded by adjoining grants or natural objects; such, for example, as on the north by the grant to A, on the south by the stream called B, on the east by the table lands of C, and on the west by the spring of D. Now, it is often a matter of the greatest difficulty, in a country such as the Southwest, abounding in springs and streams, and covered with table lands, to determine which of two springs, several miles apart, is the spring A, or which of two streams or table lands, likewise miles apart, is the stream B or the table land C. To aid him in reaching a correct conclusion, the deputy surveyor has no guide other than such information as he can glean from statements of persons in the vicinity, not under oath, and perhaps interested in extending or curtailing the limits of the grant about to be surveyed. When the deputy surveyor has performed his duty to the best of his ability, under these adverse circumstances, he returns the survey to the surveyor general, who, not being required to examine these natural objects in the field, transmits the survey to this office, and the claimants appear and ask for a patent in accordance therewith. Manifestly, if this office acts upon such a survey, by approving it, it acts blindly.

It is difficult to suggest a remedy that will be entirely satisfactory,