REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 69 



lands and of areas which control large tracts of grazing land by 

 individual stockmen is both diminisliing the opportunity for new 

 men to enter the stock business, and tending toward a situation in 

 which the public will have to pay not only for the cost of produc- 

 tion on the open range, but also for the charge which represents rising 

 rental value. It is of no small consequence that so large a part of 

 the range is in public control and may be used in the ways which 

 will result in the greatest benefit to all the people. 



ACQUISITION OF LANDS UNDER THE WEEKS LAW. 



The work of examining lands for purchase by the National Forest 

 Reservation Commission under the Weeks law was actively carried 

 forward. During the year G65,000 acres were so examined, which, 

 together with 175,000 acres examined in the fiscal year 1911, brings 

 the total area thus far covered up to 840,000 acres. The total area 

 in process of acquisition by purchase or condemnation at the close 

 of the year was not quite 2G0,000 acres, situated in New Hampshire, 

 Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. To prevent 

 speculation in options it became necessary to announce during the 

 year that no optioned lands would be considered for purchase. In 

 order to secure title satisfactory to the United States it has proved 

 necessary in many cases to resort to condemnation proceedings. Of 

 the lands placed under purchase contract or condemnation proceed- 

 ings during the year, part are cut over, part are more or less heavily 

 culled, and part are virgin timberland. The prices paid ranged from 

 $1.15 to $15 per acre, with an average of $5.95. 



STATE AND PRIVATE COOPERATION. 



The first place in cooperative work with States is that provided 

 for by the appropriation of $200,000 carried by section 2 of the 

 Weeks law, the aim of which is to secure the protection from fire of 

 the watersheds of navigable streams. Cooperative agreements en- 

 tered into with 12 States have resulted in the protection, wholly or 

 in part, of such watersheds as the Penobscot, Kennebec, Connecticut, 

 Merrimac, Hudson, Delaware, and Potomac in the Northeast, the 

 Mississippi in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the Columbia and 

 Willamette in the Pacific Northwest. As a result of the law very 

 great progress has been made by many States, particularly in the 

 East, in the development of organized fire protection. There is 

 great need for more work of this kind in the Soutli, but few of the 

 States there have as yet passed laws which make it possible, under 

 the conditions which I have felt it necessary to prescribe, to enter 

 into cooperative agreements with them. One very striking effect of 

 the law has been to stimulate the proper care of forest resources 



