THE FORESTER. 177 



National Forest receipts fund. The expenditures from this source 

 totaled $195,990.18. The total construction was 134.32 miles of road 

 and 13.63 miles of trails. 



The road construction work was organized with the cooperation 

 of the Office of Public Koads. In five of the seven National Forest 

 districts highway engineers detailed from the Office of Public Roads 

 assist in selecting, locating, and constructing the roads. Available 

 funds were concentrated on a smaller number of projects, and a 

 higher class of construction was secured. 



Among the more noteworthy projects built during the 3''ear are the 

 following: The Bitterroot-Big Hole Eoad in Montana, giving the 

 Big Hole Basin and adjacent territory access to Missoula and the 

 Bitterroot Valley by substituting for a nearly impassable road, with 

 grades as high as 25 per cent, a well-drained road on a 6 per cent 

 grade ; the Troy-Libby Eoad, in western Montana, forming the clos- 

 ing link in a through route down the Kootenai Canyon from the 

 upper Flathead Valley to Spokane and the Inland Empire territory ; 

 a unit of the Mackenzie Pass Eoad in Oregon, which will, when 

 completed, furnish the main route across the Cascades from the upper 

 Willamette Valley to eastern Oregon; and a unit of the road across 

 Teton Pass on the Idaho- Wyoming line, which will furnish a freight 

 route with easy grades between Jackson Hole and the upper Snake 

 Eiver Valley and the railroad at Victor, Idaho. 



Large areas within the National Forests, as well as in adjacent 

 territory, are without adequate means of communication. Such roads 

 as exist are ordinarily imperfectly constructed, undrained, and have 

 excessive grades. In many instances such roads are all that the local 

 community can afford to build. The Forest Service is endeavoring 

 to correct this condition as fast and as far as funds permit. The 

 amount available from the 10 per cent fund of the past year for 

 28 States (including Alaska) was less than $210,000. ^Yhl\e, much 

 good can be done with this amount, it is insufficient even to keep pace 

 with the annual increase in demands for roads made urgent by the 

 increase in settlement. Large areas of timberland of potentially 

 great value are standing unused, partly because of lack of demand, 

 partly on account of lack of transportation. Some method should 

 be found by which the community's interest in these potential values 

 may serve as security for funds for road construction now. 



SCHOOL, ROAD, AND TRAIL MONEY FOR STATES FROM RECEIPTS FUND. 



Under existing law, besides the 10 per cent of the receipts which 

 is made available for expenditure by the Secretary of Agriculture 

 in building roads and trails for the benefit of the public, another 

 25 per cent of the receipts is paid over to the States by the Federal 

 Government for the benefit of county schools and roads. The 

 amounts available under both the 10 per cent and the 25 per cent 

 clauses of the law during the fiscal j^ear 1915 and the amounts that 

 will be available during the current year from the receipts of that 

 fiscal year are shown on the following page. 



22814°— AGR 1915 12 



