914 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



expenses; 19 for payment of hospital expenses and medical attend- 

 ance; 39 for reiniburseinent of temporary employees for value of 

 time lost; 23 for reimbursement of owners of horses and equipment 

 destroyed; and 26 for relief of dependent relatives of men killed in 

 the fires. 



While these claims were pending in the respective district branches 

 of the Forest Service awaiting approval and recommendation of the 

 district foresters, the assistants to the Solicitor examined each claim, 

 and wherever evidence was deemed insufficient, the district foresters 

 wei'e advised to procure additional evidence necessary to entitle the 

 claim to favorable consideration. The bulk of these claims originated 

 in District 1, and the assistant to the Solicitor in that district 

 handled 88. 



ACQUISITION OP LAND FOR PBOTECTION OP NAVIGABLE STREAMS. 



On March 1, 1911, the President approved an act to enable the 

 States to cooperate with each other, or with the United States, for 

 the protection of the watersheds of navigable streams and to create 

 a commission for the acquisition of lands for the purpose of conserv- 

 ing the navigability of navigable rivers. This act is familiarly 

 referred to as the "Weeks forestry law" in recognition of the author 

 of the bill. Section 3 of the act appropriated $1,000,000 for the fiscal 

 year 1910 and $2,000,000 for each fiscal year thereafter, until June 

 30, 1915, for use m the examination, survey, and acquirement of 

 lands located on the headwaters of navigable streams, or those which 

 may be developed for navigation. Section 4 of the act provided for 

 the appointment of a commission, to be known as the National Forest 

 Reservation Commission, to pass upon such lands as may be recom- 

 mended for purchase by the Secretary of Agriculture. Section 7 

 authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to purchase for the United 

 States such lands as the commission might approve for purchase and 

 at the prices fixed by the commission, and it was provided that no 

 deed or other instrument of conveyance shall be accepted or approved 

 by the Secretary untU the legislature of the State in which the land 

 lies shall have consented to the acquisition of the land for the pur- 

 poses expressed in the act. Section 8 authorized the Secretary of 

 Agriculture to do all things necessary to secure safe title in the United 

 States to the lands to be acquired under the act, but provided that 

 no payment shall be made for the lands until the title shall be satis- 

 factory to the Attorney General and shall be vested in the United 

 States. 



Early in the year the Solicitor made a careful examination of the 

 laws of all the States in which it was proposed to purchase lands 

 under the act ia order to ascertain whether or not the States had 

 consented to the acquisition by the United States of lands for the 

 purposes expressed in the act. 



During the last fiscal year one contract was entered into for the 

 conveyance to the United States of a tract of 32,000 acres of land in 

 northern Georgia. This contract devolved upon the department the 

 necessity of an examination and verification of the abstracts of title 

 to the lands, and during the early part of the fiscal year an attorney 

 familiar with records and the conditions of title in northern Georgia 

 was temporarily employed and attached to the office of the Solicitor 



