87G ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



who is required and authorized to take part therein on behalf of 

 the Department. If the decision of tlie rc<];ister and receiver is 

 adverse to the United States, tlie assistants in this Ollice are required 

 to prepare a brief to be filed with the papers in the case for trans- 

 mission to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for his 

 cojisideration in connection with the case. A copy of this brief is 

 sent at once to the Solicitor, together with a copy of the testimony, 

 and if additional argument is thought to be necessary, the Solicitor 

 takes the required action. If the decision of the Commissioner be 

 unfavorable to the United States and appears, in the opinion of the 

 Solicitor, to be erroneous, an appeal is likewise taken to the Secretary 

 and either oral argument had, or a brief is submitted. The former 

 cumbersome, unsatisfactory, and ineffective practice of submitting 

 briefs after a decision of a case, has been supplanted by the orderly 

 procedure of submitting argument prior to a decision. 



Under the old system of handling the claims cases of the Depart- 

 ment the district law odicers had a large volume of work during 

 the period from January 15 to June 30. Much the larger portion 

 of this time was devoted to this branch of the work of the Office. 

 Though without having the substantial footing secured by the joint 

 order of June 25, 1910, of the Secretary of the Interior and yourself, 

 they were able to represent the Department at numerous hearings and 

 to render valuable assistance to the chiefs of field division, as well as 

 to direct necessary investigations to determine the validity of claims. 

 An idea of the magnitude of this work is suggested by a summary 

 of the cases handled in the six districts by the district law officers 

 in the last five and one-half months of the fiscal year, during which 

 the work was done under the direction of the Solicitor. 



District No. 1. — On January 15, 1910, there were pending in this 

 district 265 cases, 45 of which were finally concluded before the end 

 of the year, 16 in favor of the claimants, resulting in issuance of 

 patents, and 29 in favor of the United States, resulting in cancella- 

 tion of the entries and a saving to the Government of 4,570 acres, 

 supporting 46,680,000 feet board measure of merchantable timber 

 valued at $186,720. The remaining cases were pending at the close 

 of the year and were augmented during that period by 51 new cases, 

 introducing the new year with 271 cases to be handled in this dis- 

 trict alone. Some of the cases decided in favor of the United States 

 during the year involved mineral claims. 



District No. 2. — In this district action was taken by the district 

 law officer in 95 cases, 62 of which were decided in favor of the United 

 States, 17 adversely to the United States, in 8 cases relinquishments 

 were made, contests were withdrawn in 7 cases at request of the 

 Department, and 1 squatter location was abandoned. There were 

 326 claims cases pending in this district on January 15, 1910. At 

 the end of the fiscal year there remained still open 255, including 

 addition of new cases during the period covered by this report. 



District No. 3. — In this district action was taken by the district 

 law officer in 284 cases, 117 resulting in the issuance of patents and 

 94 in cancellation of entries. There were pending at the close of 

 the year 344 cases, consisting of those in which no action had been 

 taken prior to June 30 and new cases referred during the period from 

 January 15 to June 30. 



