REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 257 



Since this agreement went into force the efforts of the department 

 to defeat fraudulent and unwarranted claims to lands have been 

 crowned with conspicuous success. 



LEGAL BUSINESS FOR THE FOREST SERVICE. 



A record of the legal business for the Forest Service has been pre- 

 served since Februar}'^, 1910, and some estimate of the extent and 

 scope of this work may be gathered from the following brief sum- 

 mary of cases handled during that time : 



The Solicitor of the department has rendered 2,G27 written opinions 

 to the Forest Service on legal questions arising in the administration 

 of the National Forests; upward of 3,000 cases involving claims to 

 lands under public-land laws have been handled, of which fully two- 

 thirds have been- decided in favor of the Government; 73 cases of 

 illegal occupancy of lands in the National Forests have been reported 

 to the Attorney General; 193 grazing trespass cases have been simi- 

 larly reported, resulting in the recovery of damages to the amount 

 of $5,800 actual and $1,525 punitive and fines to the extent of 

 $1,173; 98 fire trespass cases have been reported, resulting in the 

 imposition of fines amounting to $1,178 and the collection of damages 

 to the amount of $G1,427, and in addition G2 prosecutions have been 

 maintained under State laws, resulting in 52 convictions; 122 timber 

 trespass cases have been reported to the Attorney General, resulting 

 in the recovery of damages to the extent of $316,8G2 and the imposi- 

 tion of fines amounting to upward of $500, together with several jail 

 sentences. Besides cases reported to the Attorney General, adminis- 

 trative settlements for trespasses on the forests have been made in 224 

 cases, resulting in the payment to the Government of $31,643. 



AVEEKS FORESTRY LAW. 



The maintenance and administration of the National Forests in the 

 West having demonstrated the importance of protection of forest 

 lands as a means of conserving and promoting water flow, the depart- 

 ment for a number of years past urged upon Congress the advisability 

 of the acquisition of timbered lands in the Fast as a means of con- 

 serving and promoting the navigability of navigable streams in the 

 Eastern States where the Government has never owned lands. Espe- 

 cial attention was called to the rapid disappearance under wasteful 

 methods of large areas of timber on the watersheds of important 

 navigable streams in and contiguous to the Appalachian Mountain 

 Kangc. Tlie recommendations of the department culminated in the 

 act of March 1, 1911, connnonly known as the Weeks L'orestrv Law, 

 under which the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to examine, 

 locate, and recommend for purchase such lands as, in his Judgment, 



70481°— AUK 1U12 IT 



