186 ANNUAL EEPOETS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUBE. 



in the execution of the cooperative agreements. Several are still 

 pending, but agreements are now in effect for projects as follows: 

 Arizona 1, California 2, Colorado 3, Idaho 1, Montana 1, and 

 Wyoming 1. 



Under an agreement with the Office of Public Roads and Rural 

 Engineering the survey and construction of all National Forest proj- 

 ects approved under the section 8 appropriation is carried on by that 

 office. Unless otherwise provided in the cooperative agreement, it 

 also supervises the maintenance of such roads. The regulations pro- 

 vide that roads constructed by the local authority under cooperative 

 agreement with the Secretary of Agriculture in return for the use 

 of section 8 money on National Forest roads shall be inspected by 

 the Office of Public Roads during construction and maintenance. 

 The plans and specifications for such roads must be acceptable to 

 the Office of Public Roads and the Forest Service. 



Section 8 of the Federal-aid road act made available until ex- 

 pended $1,000,000 for the fiscal year 1917, and the same amount for 

 the nine succeeding fiscal years. Under the regulations 90 per cent 

 of each annual appropriation is apportioned to the States as fol- 

 lows: One-half in the ratio that the aggregate area of the lands of 

 the United States in the National Forests in each State bears to the 

 total land area of such State and one-half in the ratio that the esti- 

 mated value of timber and forage resources of the National Forests 

 in such State bears to the total value of the timber and forage re- 

 sources of the National Forests of all the States. It is provided, 

 however, that in such apportionment the States of Florida, Michigan, 

 Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Oklahoma shall be con- 

 sidered as a unit of apportionment and the States within which lands 

 have been acquired by the United States under the provisions of the 

 act of Congress of March 1, 1911 (36 Stat., 961), commonly called 

 the Weeks law, will also be taken as a unit of apportionment. The 

 remaining 10 per cent of each annual appropriation is withheld as a 

 special fund from which, as directed by the Secretary, the appor- 

 tionment to any State as above provided may be increased, and from 

 which there shall be paid such amounts as the Secretary finds neces- 

 sary for the general administration of the provisions of the act. 



Unfortunately little construction work can be expected during the 

 calendar year 1917. For only a few of the approved projects had 

 satisfactory location surveys been made prior to this year. Unex- 

 pected difficulty was met in organizing survey parties, owing to the 

 scarcity of experienced engineers due to the large number enrolled 

 in training camps or enlisted in the national service. Several sur- 

 veys are now under way, and it is hoped that when the next con- 

 struction season opens active construction can be promptly started 

 on a considerable scale. It is feared, however, that progress will be 

 delayed by the difficulty in obtaining both labor and materials. The 

 cost of any work done during the present emergency will greatly 

 exceed that which would have been met two years ago, but while this 

 may make it advisable to defer construction on some projects, the 

 necessity of some means of bringing agricultural, mineral, timber, 

 and other products to the markets is so great in the present emer- 



