Milling Corporations Snap up Washington Territory's Timber Lands

It is a well known fact that the most valuable lands throughout the country generally are the timber lots. This is the case in the Eastern States where the yield of timber lands is much less than it is in Washington Territory. But here, where 20,000 feet of choice timber is considered a low average, and where 200,000 to the acre is not unusual, it is certain that a timber claim of 160 acres ought to be regarded as a fortune to any man. The great milling corporations appreciate these facts, and have acted accordingly by securing, at the earliest possible moment, all such lands that they could get hold of, and they will not cut a stick of the timber on these lands as long as they can get the logs off the lands of other parties at a low rate of stumpage. If one wishes to find how these far-reaching businesses value these lands, let him try to buy some of them at say $40 to $100 per acre. One of the most prudent acts in the past record of the Government was the discontinuance of its practice of selling off the public lands as fast as surveyed. Speculators and capitalists were shrewd enough to act on the old Hoosier lady's maxim of 'git plenty while you're gittin',' and if that system had not been stopped when it is, the settlement of Washington Territory by citizens and independent property owners would have been irretrievably stalled.