REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OP AGRICULTURE. 49 



Importance to agriculture. — To the agricultural interests of the 

 West the proper handling of the Forests is of great importance. 

 The Forests conserve and increase the supply of water. Fire pro- 

 tection gives property an added value, as do roads, trails, and other 

 Government improvements. In fact, the existence of the Forests gives 

 a permanence to agriculture that does not exist where the timberlands 

 are privately owned. 



What has happened in the older lumber regions of the country is 

 well known. The scattered agricultural areas were occupied as long 

 as the timber lasted and lumbering operations furnished markets, 

 kept up roads, and gave employment when the farm could be left. 

 But with the exhaustion of the timber, the devastation of the lands by 

 fire, the abandonment of the logging roads, and the moving of the 

 industry to some new region, the farms, too, were abandoned and 

 whole townships depopulated. 



Agricultural settlement. — It is the department's policy to make 

 available for settlement all lands which are chiefly valuable for 

 farming. In order to open such areas a careful classification is 

 being made. Large tracts found to be valuable for agriculture or un- 

 suited for permanent Forest purposes are eliminated. During the last 

 five years about 14,000,000 acres have been released. In addition, 

 individual tracts are classified and opened to entry upon application 

 of home seekers. Since the work was begun more than 1,900,000 acres 

 have been made available for the benefit of 18,000 settlers. 



In short, lands within the Forests really adapted to agriculture 

 are being occupied as homesteads under favorable conditions. "WHiile 

 the lands suited to settlement are classified and opened to entry, those 

 which are not chiefly valuable for agriculture are retained in public 

 ownership. The alienation of timberlands under conditions that will 

 lead not to settlement but to speculation and to increasing the holdings 

 of private timber owners would defeat the very purposes for which 

 the Forests were established. 



The real agricultural problem within and near the Forests is to 

 make possible the successful occupancy and development of the 

 lands that already have been opened to entry or actually patented. 

 The mere private ownership of land does not insure successful use 

 of it. In Oregon and Washington alone there are about 3.000,000 

 acres of logged-off land, much of it agricultural in character, now 

 22814°— AGE 1915 4 



