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| Long title | An Act to encourage the Growth of Timber on western Prairies. |
|---|---|
| Acronyms (colloquial) | TCA |
| Nicknames | Timber Culture Act of 1873 |
| Enacted by | the 42nd United States Congress |
| Effective | March 3, 1873 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | 42-277 |
| Statutes at Large | 17 Stat. 605c |
| Legislative history | |
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The Timber Culture Act was a follow-up act to the Homestead Act. The Timber Culture Act was passed by Congress in 1873. The act allowed homesteaders to get another 160 acres (65 ha) of land if they planted trees on one-fourth of the land, because the land was "almost one entire plain of grass, which is and ever must be useless to cultivating man." (qtd. in Daily Life on the 19th Century American Frontier by Aleesha White)
The primary impetus for the act was to alter the climate and ecology of the Great Plains. Scientists in the 19th century believed that substantial afforestation would cause an increase in rainfall,[1] which would enable greater agricultural development. A second motivation was the need for timber on the frontier.[2]
- ^ Emmons, David M. “Theories of Increased Rainfall and the Timber Culture Act of 1873.” Forest History Newsletter, vol. 15, no. 3, 1971, pp. 6–14. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4004297.
- ^ Goetz, Kathryn, Land for trees: The Timber Culture Act of 1873, MNopedia, 2013 [1]