FOREST SERVICE. 



187 



Orazing permits issued and number of stock grazed under permit, fiscal year 



ended June SO, 1918. 



WATEB POWEB. 



The receipts from water power permits were $93,976.35, as against 

 $106,389.48 in 1917. Ten applications for preliminary rental permits 

 were received, 31 for final rental permits (of which 28 were for per- 

 mits for transmission lines only) , and 14 for free permits, of which 1 

 was for a transmission line only. At the close of the j^ear 16 pre- 

 liminary rental permits, 228 final rental permits, and 107 free permits 

 were in force for power projects involving the use of National Forest 

 lands for reservoirs, conduits, or power houses, with or without trans- 

 mission lines, while 142 final rental permits and 13 free permits were 

 in force for transmission lines only, of an aggregate length on Na- 

 tional Forest land of 838.8 mile^. 



The extent to which power development has actually taken place 

 on the National Forests is best evidenced by the figures for the esti- 

 mated average output at minimum discharge of the projects having 

 reservoirs, conduits, or power houses on Forest lands. For all per- 

 mits in force at the close of the year this was 776,709 horsepower, as 

 against 738,450 at the close of the previous year. Of this, 405,368 

 horsepower, as against 365,208 one year previously, is credited to 

 projects for which all construction is complete: 157,502 horsepower 

 to incomplete projects; and the remainder to projects on which con- 

 struction has not yet started. 



The war has had a marked effect upon the electric-power industry. 

 The demand for power is increasing rapidly. It is most acute in the 



