256 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ILLEGAL CLAIlSrS TO LANDS IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



The department has -svorked out a system of water-power control 

 which is under most successful operation at the present time. It is, 

 of course, natural in the administration of nearly 200 million acres 

 of land under regulations which permit the use of the lands for 

 private purposes that numerous and important legal questions will 

 arise, to say nothing of the preparation of necessary contracts and 

 other instruments to perform properly the business of the depart- 

 ment in connection with these lands. These exigencies made it im- 

 perative that legal assistants should be detailed to the 6 Forest Service 

 districts for tlie performance of the legal work of these districts. 

 Since the spring of 1910 these legal assistants have been in the office 

 and under the supervision of the Solicitor of the department. Two 

 have been assigned to each of the districts, except that in districts 

 4 and 5, w^here it has been found possible to perform the work with 

 one assistant, only one has been assigned to each. The work of these 

 district assistants to the Solicitor is varied and extensive, including 

 preparation of all contracts and other written documents, legal ad- 

 vice to the district foresters, assistance to the United States attorneys 

 handling the department's cases, and cooperation with the agents of 

 the Interior Department in the prevention of both illegal and un- 

 warranted acquisition by individuals of lands in the National Forests 

 under the various public land laws. Many of these claims were and 

 are known or believed to be either fraudulent or without warrant of 

 law. It was and is, therefore, the duty of the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, as custodian of these lands, to see that these claims were and are 

 not allowed to be perfected and title procured by patent. The de- 

 partment's efforts to defeat fraudulent and unauthorized claims to 

 lands in the National Forests had been successful in a large measure, 

 but it was realized that closer cooperation between the Department 

 of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture was requisite to 

 that degree of success which would insure the best results for the 

 Government. 



With such cooperation in view, the two departments, in June, 1910, 

 entered into an agreement by which the Department of Agriculture 

 was to be recognized in the Interior Department as an active con- 

 testant in all claims cases against which an adverse report was made 

 by forest officers. This agreement embodied also the provision that 

 the law officers of the Department of Agriculture should have the 

 right to attend and participate in all hearings ordered by the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior for the taking of testimony; and the right of 

 appeal from decisions of the Commissioner of the General Land 

 Office adverse to the Government in Forest Service cases was like- 

 wise accorded the law officers of the Department of Agriculture. 



