300 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUKE. 



Expenditures for fire fighting have made deficiency appropria- 

 tions necessary for 8 out of the last 10 years. Congress has pre- 

 ferred to make a relatively small fund available in advance for 

 meeting fire emergencies and to supply whatever additional amounts 

 were required through deficiency appropriations. This has lessened 

 initial appropriations, but it has had certain drawbacks. It is 

 now urged that fire-fighting deficiencies be met out of regular 

 appropriations. The average cost of emergency fire prevention 

 and suppression paid from the special fund and from deficiency 

 appropriations for the past three years has been $708,000. To cut 

 down the present expenditures on other lines of work during the 

 summer months — the active field season — sufficiently to create the 

 contingent fund required not only would necessitate refusing new 

 timber-sale business but also would cripple the whole administrative 

 and protective organization. In other words, if the necessity of defi- 

 ciency appropriations in all but the most favorable seasons is to be 

 avoided, the special fire-fighting fund available for meeting emer- 

 gency conditions should be materially increased. 



There is need also for a change in the law that will make the emer- 

 gency fire-fighting fund available immediately upon passage of the 

 appropriation act. In the average season slightly over $100,000 is 

 spent for spring fire fighting, but if the fire season opens late very 

 little may be required. In the past it has been necessary to guard 

 against being faced with emergency conditions just when there are 

 no longer any funds whatever with which to meet them, by seeking 

 a sufficient deficiency appropriation to afford a margin against con- 

 tingencies. In effect this amounts to partially replenishing the 

 special fire-fighting fund in years in which it has been exhausted 

 early in anticipation of needs that may not develop. If the emer- 

 gency fire fighting for the following year can be drawn upon for 

 spring fire fighting, no obligation of Treasury funds for this pur- 

 pose in excess of actual needs will be required, and no deficiency 

 appropriation will be necessary for anything but expenditures 

 already made. 



THE NATIONAL FOREST PROPERTIES. 



At the close of the fiscal year the net area of national- forest land 

 was 157,236,807 acres, and the gross area, which includes interior 

 holdings not in Government ownership, was 182,099,802 acres. The 

 net area increased during the year 399,525 acres; the gross area in- 

 creased 299,805 acres, of which, however, 47,514 acres are represented 

 by recomputations of existing areas based upon more exact survej-s 

 and projections. 



The total area added to the national forests by Executive orders or 

 proclamations was 408,622 acres. Specifically the additions were as 

 follows: Carson National Forest (New Mexico), 124,247 acres; Fill- 

 more Forest (Utah), 10,268 acres; Lemhi Forest (Idaho), 254,744 

 acres; Manzano Forest (New Mexico), 16,608 acres; Michigan Forest 

 (Michigan), 435 acres; and Powell Forest (Utah), 2,320 acres. The 

 Lemhi addition was authorized by specific act of Congress as the 

 result of long-continued effort on the part of local residents to have 

 the land placed under national-forest administration. The Powell 

 addition involved a part of the land subsequently embraced within 

 the Bryce Canyon National Monument. The actual eliminations 



