374 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



To increase the efTiciency of Forest officers, the plan of holdings con- 

 ferences for discussion of administrative i)roblems and instruction in 

 the best methods of carin<:; for the Forests was continued. There were 

 held during the year 54 such meetings of supervisors and rangers, of 

 which 45 were attended by representatives of the district offices. 

 The Utah Agricultural College, the Colorado State Agricultural Col- 

 lege, the universities of Washington and Montana, and other similar 

 institutions provided short winter courses to prepare men for efficient 

 forest work. The detail of 208 rangers to attend these courses was 

 held by the Comptroller of the Treasury to involve the illegal expen- 

 diture of public money and necessitated the disallowance of all 

 charges for this purpose. Immediately upon the rendering of this 

 decision steps were taken to recover all disbursements which had pre- 

 viously been made, so that no permanent loss to the Government 

 resulted. 



BUSINESS ORGANIZATION. 



The organization of the Forest Service w^as changed on January 15, 

 1910, by a transfer of all its legal work to the Solicitor of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and of its fiscal affairs to the Division of Accounts 

 and Disbursements in the Department. The organization was fur- 

 ther changed on February 5, 1910, by removing from the Branch of 

 Operation the administrative control of the work connected with 

 agricultural settlement, claims, ranger stations, occupancy, trespass, 

 and uses, and placing it under a newly formed Branch of Lands, with 

 a corresponding Office of Lands in each District office. The boundaries 

 of the districts were not changed during the year. 



The move toward decentralization, which led during the previous 

 year to the establishment of the District offices, was carried a step fur- 

 ther by increasing the responsibility placed upon local Forest officers. 

 The number of officers and clerks regularly employed in the District 

 offices was reduced by 146, and their work transferred to the National 

 Forests. In continuance of the plan devised to increase the effi- 

 ciency of Forest officers by giving them experience in the general 

 executive work of the Districts, 103 men from the local force on the 

 Forests were detailed, for an average time of one month, to assist in 

 the work of the District offices. 



During the year the Choctawhatchee and Ocala Forests, in Florida, 

 and the Marquette and Michigan Forests, in Michigan, were put under 

 administration. The Targhee, in Wyoming, the San Juan, in Colo- 

 rado, and the Coconino, in Arizona, were subdivided into two sepa- 

 rate administrative units each, and the Bonneville, in Wyoming, into 

 three, while the administration of the Las Animas, in Colorado and 

 New Mexico, was merged with that of the San Isabel Forest, and that 

 of the San Luis, in California, with the Santa Barbara. 



To provide for a proper consideration of the engineering problems 

 involved in granting water-power permits, and to systematize the 

 regulation of this use of the Forests in the interests of all concerned, 

 a chief engineer was appointed, responsible to the Chief of the Branch 

 of Lands, to pass upon all technical questions involved in water-power 

 development. When a special-use application for lands needed for 

 power purposes is received in the District office, an examination is 

 made on the ground by a competent engineer, whose report and recofn- 



