484 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



well-to-do farmer can pay this price, but the home seeker with no 

 money even for a small cash deposit is excluded. Laws made for the 

 benefit of this very home seeker result in excluding him altogether and 

 permitting the timber speculator to acquire resources of enormous 

 value from the (lovernment for speculative purposes. 



It is this condition which has led to the policy of the Forest Service 

 to cut over the heavily timbered tracts before opening them to entry, 

 in order that settlement may be hastened and the bona fide settler 

 may get his land free. 



What land has been opened to entry. — The Forest Service has 

 been steadily segregating and listing for entry the lands in the 

 national forests that are chiefly valuable for agriculture. Between 

 the time that authority to list was granted in 190G and June 30, 1912, 

 there was listed a total of 1,144,359 acres to the benefit of over 12,000 

 settlers. In the first four months of the current fiscal year this 

 amount has been increased by 68,665 acres more. The nearly 10,000,- 

 000 acres eliminated from the forests during the last three years also 

 contained a great deal of agricultural land. 



Where land is found suitable for dry farming it is segregated and 

 opened to entry. If irrigation is required, land of good soil is listed 

 wherever there is a possibility of developing water. In the case of 

 agricultural land now covered with heavy timber far exceeding its 

 value for farming, listing of which would invite timber speculation 

 rather than bona fide settlement, the timber is removed by sale and 

 the land then opened to entry. Some of the timbered lands contain 

 from 20,000 to 75,000 feet per acre, worth from $2 to $5 a thousand 

 on the stump. 



Where land is chiefly valuable for water-power sites, irrigation 

 reservoirs, or purposes which would lead to the monopolistic control 

 of natural resources it has been retained under public control. Lands 

 needed for public purposes, such as administrative sites, logging 

 landings, mill sites, etc., have also been retained by the Government. 



Problem or rights of way.— The problem of reserving rights of 

 way for public uses has presented many difficulties. A large number 

 of tracts which are opened to agricultural entry are so located that 

 they control the rights of way over which national forest timber must 

 be brought to market or command the only way to private timber and 

 to agricultural tracts. This is especially true because so much of the 

 agricultural land in the national forests occurs in strips along narrow 

 valleys and gulches. In many of the tracts which were first opened 

 to entry this condition was not foreseen, and no provision was made 

 for a reservation of a right of way. Already difficulties of this kind 

 have arisen. The only way under the present law of meeting this 

 situation is to surve}^ out in advance the rinht of way and describe it 

 in the patent. This is very costly and, furthermore, it is unsatis- 

 factory, because it is often impossible to tell in advance just where 

 the needed right of way will be required. There is, therefore, urgent 

 need of general legislation authorizing the SeCrtnary of the Interior 

 to express in all patents the reservation of rights of way for govern- 

 mental purposes and the need of settlers. 



Land classification. — For several years after the passage of the 

 forest homestead act examinations of agricultural lands were made 

 only upon application ; that is, when a specified tract was desired by 



