64 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



for a thoroughgoing classification of areas which that work had not 

 reached. 



Agricultural development within the forests is highly desirable 

 not only because it carries out the fundamental principle of putting 

 every kind of land to its most productive use but also because the 

 administration of the forests is made easier by the presence of settlers. 

 A forest put to work is a very different thing from a wilderness. The 

 more people it has living in it the better. They are needed to use 

 the resources. They are also needed to help protect the forests. 

 Settlers assist in locating fires and in putting them out. They are 

 available for extra help in the construction of improvements and 

 similar work. Their farms become to a certain extent bases of sup- 

 ply. In its plans of organized fire protection the Forest Service 

 now arranges with settlers to take a definite part in the work, and 

 thus forms what may be called the secondary line of defense. There 

 is every reason why the settlement of lands more valuable for agri- 

 cultural use than for forest use should be welcomed and facilitated. 



A comprehensive plan of land-classification w^ork for the general 

 determination of agricultural lands Avithin the forests received my 

 approval in April of the present year. Under this plan the land will 

 be classified on the basis of full data with regard to all important 

 factors. Questions relating to soil will be passed upon by specialists 

 from the Bureau of Soils. In fact, a complete scientific determina- 

 tion will be made not only of the relative value of the land for field 

 crops and for forest crops, but also of the relative value of different 

 areas for farming, and of the kind of farming that will be most suc- 

 cessful. To this work the entire department will contribute. The 

 applicant for land will be able to learn not merely that he may settle 

 in a certain place, but the relative value of all lands open and the 

 crops and cultural methods which will utilize to best advantage any 

 specific area. In this way I believe that the principle of putting 

 every kind of land to its best use will be carried out more effectively 

 than has ever been possible before and with greatest benefit to those 

 who seek to make settlement in the forests. 



Partial provision for this work w^as made by an appropriation of 

 $25,000. To carry the work forward on the scale planned much more 

 liberal provision for it should be made, and I strongly urge that the 

 appropriation be increased. 



In listing tracts for settlement a difficulty which is of serious im- 

 portance in some cases is created by the need to reserve rights of way 

 over the land. In narrow valleys a single farm may bottle up a 

 large and valuable body of timber if no right of way exists across it, 

 or it may block entrance to agricultural land lying beyond. "Wlien 

 the need of a right of way can be foreseen it is now surveyed out 

 in advance and described in the patent ; this, however, is both costly 



