Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/681

 fered to sell its timber, in tracts of 160 acres, at $2.50 an acre; and lands containing stone quarries at the same price. The total number of acres of timber in the state is estimated at 761,000, or a little over thirty-one per cent of the whole area.

As it became a known fact that the cultivation of timber tended to produce a moisture which was lacking in the climate and soil of the high central plains, congress passed an act by the provisions of which a quarter-section of land might be taken up, and on a certain portion of it being planted with timber, a patent might be obtained to the whole. Under this act, passed in 1873 and amended in 1874, between 18,000 and 19,000 acres were claimed in the year ending July 1, 1878, chiefly in eastern Oregon; while in the same year, under the homestead act, nearly 86,000 acres were taken up, the whole amount of government land taken in Oregon in 1878 being 139,597 acres. The rapid settlement of the country at this period, together with the absorption of the public lands by railroad grants, seems likely soon to terminate the possessory rights of the government in Oregon, the claims of settlers still keeping in advance of the United States surveys.

To the legislature of 1862 was submitted a Code of Civil Procedure, with some general laws concerning corporations, partnerships, public roads, and other matters, prepared by a commission consisting of Deady, Gibbs, and Kelly, which was accepted with some slight amendments; and an act was then passed authorizing Deady to complete the code and report at the next session. This was done, and the code completed was accepted in 1864, but four members voting against it on the final ballot, and they upon the ground of the absence of a provision prohibiting