SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN -WHITE 

 MOUNTAIN FOREST BILL 



tr OLLOWING the special report of 

 ^ the Secretary of Agriculture on 

 Southern Appalachian and White 

 Mountain Watersheds, which went to 

 Congress December ii, the bill for the 

 purchase of National Forests in the 

 two regions was introduced in the 

 House of Representatives on Decem- 

 ber 19. Identical bills were introduc- 

 ed by Representatives Lever,*of South 

 Carolina, and Currier, of New Hamp- 

 shire. Both were referred to the Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture, of which Rep- 

 resentative Chas. F. Scott, of Kansas, 

 is Chairman. 



An effort is being made to secure a 

 public hearing on these bills on De- 

 cember 30th, the day following the 

 meeting of the x\merican Forestry As- 

 sociation. The bill is modified consid- 

 erably from the form in which it 

 passed the Senate in the last Congress. 

 In its present form it is simpler and 

 much better. Before its Introduction 

 it was carefully criticized by represent- 

 atives of the Society for the Protection 

 of New Hampshire B'orests, the Mass- 

 achusetts Forestry Association, and 

 the American Civic Association, as well 

 as by members of the American For- 

 estry Association and the Forest Ser- 

 vice, and we understand that its pres- 

 ent form is approved by all of these or- 

 ganizations. The text of the bill fol- 

 lows : 



A BILL 



For acquiring National Forests in the 

 Southern Appalachian Mountains 

 and White Mountains. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and 

 House of Representatives of the 

 United States of America in Congress 

 assembled. That the Secretary of Ag- 

 riculture is hereby authorized and di-* 

 rected, in his discretion, to acquire for 

 National Forest purposes by purchase 

 or gift lands more valuable for 



the 



regulation 



of stream flow 



than for other purposes and sit- 

 uated on the watersheds of navi- 

 gable streams in the Southern Appa- 

 lachian Mountains within the States of 

 Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, 

 North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, and 

 Tennessee, and in the White Moun- 

 tains within the States of New Hamp- 

 shire and Maine. Such acquisition 

 may in any case be conditioned upon 

 the exception and reservation to the 

 owner from whom title passes to the 

 United States of the minerals and of 

 the merchantable timber, or either or 

 any part of them, within or upon such 

 lands at the date of the conveyance, 

 but in every such case such exception 

 and reservation and the time within 

 which such timber shall be removed 

 and the rules and regulations under 

 which the cutting and removal of such 

 timber, and the mining and removal 

 of such minerals shall be done, shall 

 be expressed in the written instrument 

 of conveyance, and thereafter the 

 mining, cutting and removal of the 

 minerals and timber so excepted and 

 reserved shall be done only under and 

 in obedience to the rules and regula- 

 tions so expressed. 



Sec. 2. That the Secretary of Ag- 

 riculture shall advertise in the several 

 States named in section one for lands 

 to be acquired under the provisions 

 hereof ; and as between lands of equal 

 value, the lowest bids shall be accept- 

 ed : Provided, That the Secretary of 

 Agriculture shall have the right to re- 

 ject any or all bids. 



Sec. 3. That no deed or other in- 

 strument of conveyance shall be ac- 

 cepted or approved by the Secretary 

 of Agriculture under this act until the 

 legislature of the State in which the 

 land lies shall have consented to the ac- 

 quisition of such land by the United 

 States for National Forest purposes. 



Sec. 4. That the Secretary of Agri- 



