REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTTTRE. 45 



tern has been developed. Extensive improvements have been made, 

 including more than 25,000 miles of roads, trails, and fire lines, 

 20,000 miles of telephone lines, many lookout stations, and head- 

 quarters for the protective force. In the year 1914, when conditions 

 were exceptionally unfavorable, nearly 7,000 fires were fought suc- 

 cessfully. They threatened bodies of timber valued at nearly 

 $100,000,000, but the actual damage was less than $500,000. This 

 work not only is saving public property ; it is conserving the material 

 for local economic development and for permanent industry. Fur- 

 thermore, the results of the Federal system have induced many States 

 to take up the work, and active cooperation between the two agencies 

 has followed. 



TJse of timber. — The service rendered by the National Forests is 

 not confined to protection from fire. The resources are being uti- 

 lized to build up the country. They furnish the timber required by 

 settlers, conmiunities, and industries within and near their borders. 

 This is obtained without charge by settlers, prospectors, and other 

 local residents for personal use; at cost by settlers and farmers 

 generally for domestic purposes ; and at market value by individuals 

 or corporations desiring to purchase it. During the last 11 years 

 the number of permits for free timber to settlers has been multiplied 

 13 times and the number of sales 27 times. The amount cut annually 

 by settlers under these permits is more than four times what it was in 

 1905, wJiile that under commercial sales has increased eightfold. In 

 the three years since sales at cost to settlers and farmers were au- 

 thorized by the Congress their annual volume has increased enor- 

 mously. Nearly 61,000 lots were disposed of during the last year. 

 Probably not less than 45,000 persons or corporations obtained timber 

 directly from the National Forests. 



More than half of the timber now cut annually is used in the vicinity 

 of the Forests. This includes all that taken free and under sales at cost, 

 and approximately 45 per cent of the commercial cut. Hundreds 

 of mining districts throughout the West, from small projects requir- 

 ing an occasional wagonload of props or lagging to the great copper 

 district of central Montana, which consumes about 380,000 pieces of 

 mining timber annually, are supplied. Kailroads also are furnished a 

 large part of the ties and other material required for their lines in the 

 Rocky Mountain regions. A million and a half ties now are cut from 



