unless in some way they be stopped, it will soon be too late.
There is a mountain region in the far Northwest which demands the earliest possible attention of our National authorities. It is the great area of mountain forest covering the headwaters of the Missouri and Columbia. The Government cannot too soon take effective steps to protect these forests, which are among the most important in the United States, against destruction, by making them a permanent reservation and having them carefully guarded.
When speaking of the preservation of forests, we do not, as has already been eloquently set forth by our chairman, mean that they should be kept untouched and unused as the miser keeps his hoard, but that they should be made useful in a way preventing their destruction and even improving their value, as forests are made useful in other civilized countries.
In my first annual report as Secretary of the Interior, twelve years ago, I made some recommendations leading to that end, the main points being in substantial accord with the project of a bill drafted by your committee. Permit me to read them:
All timber lands still belonging to the United States should be withdrawn from the operation of the preemption and homestead laws, as well as the location of the various kinds of scrip.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 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 actions.
