792 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



department which were begun in the last fiscal year were terminated 

 in the present. The defendants in these cases were all convicted 

 and sentenced to pay iines ranging from $5 to SI 95. Picas of guilty 

 were vciy promptly entered b}' some of the defendants after the deci- 

 sion of Judge Dietrich in the case of the United States v. Ilizzinelli 

 et al. (182 Fed., G75), decided August 24, 1910. In this decision it 

 was hold that the act of June 4, 1897, authorizing the Secretaiy of 

 Agriculture to make regulations for the occupancy and use of lands 

 within the National Forests is constitutional; that a regulation of the 

 Secretaiy of Agriculture proliibiting the erection and maintenance 

 of a saloon on an unperfected mining claim within a National Forest 

 is valid; and that one who locates lands witliin the National Forests 

 under the mining laws has no right to maintain thereon a saloon in 

 violation of the regulation prohibiting it. Broadly, it was decided 

 that lands in the National Forests, entered under the public land laws, 

 can not be used for purposes inconsistent with those for which the 

 entry, location, or appropriation was made, at least prior to the per- 

 fection of title in the occupant. Accordingly, the demurrers of these 

 defendants to the indictments were overruled. In the preparation 

 and presentation of this case to the court my assistant at Missoula, 

 Mont., prepared and filed a very exhaustive and elaborate brief and 

 made the oral argument at the hearing on the demurrers. The 

 importance of this decision can not be overestimated, and it has had 

 the effect of placing the administration of the National Forestsupon a 

 more effective basis. There are now pending in Nevada several 

 indictments against parties for maintaining saloons on mining claims 

 in National Forests. Several of these parties havenotyet been appre- 

 hended and all the cases were pending at the close of the year. 



Several cases reported to the Attorney General during the year 

 were based upon the occupancy of land in the National Forests imder 

 claims of right adverse to the United States, such, for example, as 

 rights asserted under unapproved selections by States and railroads, 

 made in Ueu of lands lost to them by reason of their inclusion in 

 reservations. In one case, a former permittee of this department, 

 who had erected a house on land in the Olympic National Forest, 

 refused to vacate the land, asserting vested lights therein, and it 

 became necessaiy to institute an action of ejectment to recover pos- 

 session of the land. Judgment of ouster was rendered and the pos- 

 session restored to the Government. This is the only case under this 

 heading decided during the year. The others were pending at its 

 close. 



In one of the suits, the facts in which were reported to the Attorney 

 General during the preceding fiscal year, to terminate unlawful occu- 

 pancy of lands in the Montezuma National Forest, in connection with 

 the development of hydroelectric power, a temporary injunction was 

 granted by the court duruig the fiscal year. Six other cases of a 

 similar nature were reported to the Attorney General during the year, 

 in one of which a temporaiy injunction was granted by the court. 

 This is the case of the llydro-Electric Co. of California, which, with- 

 out permit from the Secretary of Agriculture, had constructed several 

 hundred feet of its ditch over lands in the Mono National Forest, Cal., 

 when application was made by the Government for an injunc- 

 tion. The company asserted and still asserts a right to cross the 



