912 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the administration of the National Forests, is nevertheless of con- 

 trolling importance in the timber-sale business of the Forest Service, 

 fis well also as in the administration of the right of -way laws. In 

 this case the court held tliat — ■ 



Under a grant to a railroad company of the right to take timber from public lands 

 adjacent "required for the construction and repair of its railway and telegraph line," 

 any part of the timber cut which was not suitable for such use, and all waste or side 

 cutamcident to the sawing of the logs used into the dimensions required, remains the 

 property of the United States, and the company has no right therein, and, if used by 

 it for other purposes or by its agents for their own benefit with its consent or to ita 

 profit, the company and such agents are jointly liable therefor. 



The agricultural appropriation act for the fiscal year 1912, approved 

 March 4, 1911, contams a provision authorizing and empowermg the 

 head of tlie department having jurisdiction over the lands, under 

 general regulations to be fixed by him, to grant an casement for rights 

 of way for a period not exceeaing 50 years over and across public 

 lands. National Forests, and reservations of the United States for 

 electrical poles and lines for the transmission and distribution of elec- 

 trical power and for poles and lines for telephone and telegraph pur- 

 poses. A proviso in. the act permits the grant of an easement over 

 reservations of the United States only when approved by the chief 

 officer of the department under whose supervision or control such 

 reservation falls, upon a finding by him that the grant will be com- 

 patible with public interests. As this provision of the act required 

 the promulgation of regulations for its administration, the depart- 

 ment, early after the passage of the act, suggested to the Secretary 

 of the Interior that a conference be had between the two departments 

 to the end that uniformity as neau as possible might be secured in the 

 regulations of the two departments governing the easements over 

 public lands and National Forests. In response to this suggestion, 

 the Secretary of the Interior expressed the opinion that the act con- 

 ferred upon him exclusive authority to grant the easements therein 

 provided for in the case of the National Forests as well as of the unre- 

 served public lands. This department did not so construe the act, 

 and, being of the opinion that it imposed upon tlie Secretary of Agri- 

 culture the duty of granting rights of way over the National Forests, 

 requested reconsideration by the Secretary of the Interior, suggesting 

 that, if he was still of the opinion formerly expressed, the matter be 

 submitted to the Attorney General for an opinion. It was so sub- 

 mitted to the Attorney General upon exliaustive briefs filed by both 

 departments, the one for this department having been prepared by 

 the Sohcitor, and on February 3, 1912, the Attorney General, in an 

 opinion to both of the departments, held that the act conferred sole 

 authority upon the Secretary of Agriculture to administer the act so 

 far as it apphes to National Forests. 



In consecjuence of the extensive forest fires in the fall of 1910 large 

 bodies of timber were reduced to the condition of what is commonly 

 caUed fire-killed timber. This timber is merchantable if cut within 

 two or three years, but after that period is practically valueless. 

 Much of the timber injured by the fires was situated upon lands 

 within the boundaries of National Forests, but upon unsurveyed or 

 unclassified sections which were within the primary limits of grants 

 to railroad companies, or embraced within unapproved railroad 

 selections or claims initiated and subsisting under the homestead 



