168 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



This is 233,190 acres less than the total net area June 30, 1916. 

 Both the gross and the net area of the National Forests reached their 

 maximum in 1910, when the boundaries at one time included 194,- 

 538,532 acres, and the amount in public ownership w^as in the neigh- 

 borhood of 172,000,000 acres. For a number of years the National 

 Forest area had been rapidly augmented, for the most part on the 

 basis of reconnaissance examinations which left for later determina- 

 tion the most desirable permanent boundary line. In 1909 plans for 

 a thoroughgoing revision of the boundaries were inaugurated. These 

 plans contemplated both the exclusion of lands within the Forests not 

 jDermanently best suited- to forest purposes and the inclusion of lands 

 without the Forests best suitable for inclusion. The process of build- 

 ing up the Forests had, however, somewhat outstripped the develop- 

 ment of methods of use and the growth of public opinion regarding 

 the desirability of permanent Government ownership and manage- 

 ment of the properties. In 1907 Congress incorporated in the Agri- 

 culture appropriation act a provision that no additions should be 

 made to the Forests in the States of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, 

 Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, and in 1910 California was 

 added to the list. Since early in 1910 the area in the Forests has 

 been undergoing steady reduction. 



Fundamentally this has been the outcome of land classification. 

 The primary object of this w-ork has been to discover and open to 

 settlement, either through eliminations or under the forest-homestead 

 law, areas better suited to agricultural than to forest use. Secondary 

 considerations have been the elimination of lands which, either because 

 of their low value for Forest purposes or their relatively high per- 

 centage of private holdings, do not justify the cost involved in their 

 administration. The natural complement of this process of sifting 

 out the lands which it is undesirable, from the standpoint of public 

 interests, to retain would be a similar classification of lands outside 

 the Forests wdiich are still public property and which would best 

 serve the public welfare if added to them. Where possible this has 

 been done. In the States within which Congress has prohibited addi- 

 tions by Executive action, however, additions must, as a rule, await 

 the development of a definite local demand for administration of spe- 

 cific areas by the Forest Service sufficient to bring about legislation. 



By Executive orders effective July 1, 1917, the Santa Rosa, Ruby, 

 and Humboldt Forests in Nevada were combined in one Forest, to be 

 designated as the Humboldt; the Chiricahua and Coronado in New 

 Mexico and Arizona were combined in one Forest to be known as the 

 Coronado; the Alamo and Lincoln Forests, New Mexico, were com- 

 bined in one Forest to be known as the Lincoln ; and the Palisade and 

 Targhee Forests in Wyoming and Idaho were combined under the 

 latter name. In consequence of these changes the number of National 

 Forests at the beginning of the new fiscal year was 147, as against 152 

 on July 1, 1916. 



ALIENATIONS AND LAND CLASSIFICATION. 



There were passed to patent 1,208 tracts of land within the National 

 Forests, as against 1,491 in 1916 and 881 in 1915. Of these 730 were 

 homesteads, as against 761 in 1916 and 360 in 1915. Mineral claims 

 patented were 426, as against 703 in 1916. Patents were also issued 



