REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 35 



appropriate action; 51 A\Titten opinions were rendered to officers of 

 the Forest Service on the legal phases of questions arising in the 

 admmistration of the National Forests; 53 agreements, 150 leases, 

 and 47 bonds were prepared during the same period on behalf of 

 the Forest Service ; 565 cases of contested claims to lands within the 

 National Forests initiated under the pubHc land laws, including the 

 homestead and mining laws, were disposed of during the same period 

 by the branches of this Ofhce in the field. 



Under the Twenty-eight Hour Law 438 cases were reported to the 

 Attorney-General; in the 139 cases closed during the fiscal year 1910 

 penalties aggregating $16,500 were recovered, and costs to the 

 amount of $2,919.35 were paid; 19 cases out of 158 tried resulted 

 in favor of the defendants; 29 cases were dismissed for insufficiency 

 of evidence ; 559 cases were pending at the close of the year. Expe- 

 rience in the administration of the Twenty-eight Hour Law during 

 the past year does not disclose any considerable improvement in the 

 methods of handhng live stock in transit, since more than twice as 

 many instances of apparent violations of this statute were reported 

 as during the preceding year. To carry out the present intent of 

 Congress in passing the act, which was framed to secure the humane 

 handlmg of live stock in transit, it would seem that an additional 

 provision should be incorporated therein requiring carriers to main- 

 tain a reasonable minimum speed on all stock trains. One hundred 

 and forty-eight apparent violations of the live-stock quarantine laws 

 were reported to the Attorney-General during the year; fines in the 

 sum of $2,970 were collected in the 20 cases disposed of during the 

 fiscal year 1910. Fifty-two violations of the Meat-Inspection Law 

 of June 30, 1906, were reported to the Attorney-General during the 

 year; of these, 18 resulted in conviction, 8 were dismissed because of 

 the insufficiency of the evidence, and 26 are pending in the courts. 

 Two cases were reported to the Attorney-General under the Lacey 

 Act regarding the interstate transportation of game killed in viola- 

 tion of state laws. One case is pending and the other was aban- 

 doned because of the apparent impossibihty of proving the interstate 

 shipment. Four cases coming over from the previous year were 

 disposed of; in two the grand jury failed to return an indictment; 

 in the other two cases fines were assessed. 



An important decision was handed down by the Circuit Court of 

 Appeals of the Eighth Circuit toward the close of the year, sustaining 

 the constitutionahty of the Lacey Act and the power of Congress 

 to require that interstate shipments of game be plainly marked so 

 as to show their contents. A detailed statement of all the cases 

 reported or tried under the various acts of Congress administered 

 by this Department, together with a full description of the work of 

 this Office during the past fiscal year, will be found in the report of 

 the Solicitor. 



