48G ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Lands listed duking 1912. — The results of the year under the law 

 of June 11, 190G, are shown in the following^ table: 



Applications and lintiny for forest homestead entry. 



While there is always an accumulation at the close of the fiscal 

 year of applications awaiting action because they were made during 

 the winter months, when field examinations are in most regions im- 

 possible, the number of such applications shown above was unusually 

 high for special reasons. Of the total 3,135, almost one-half, or 1,418, 

 were pending in the office of the district forester at Missoula, Mont. 

 Of these. 140 are within a railroad grant and can not be acted on 

 until public survey has been extended; 125 are for what are known 

 as "jack-pine flat" lands, of sufficiently doubtful agricultural value 

 to justify an exhaustive investigation now under way by the Bureau 

 of Soils ; while 302 are for heavily timbered lands in several Montana 

 valleys. The soil in these valleys is considered valuable for agricul- 

 ture, but when areas applied for support very heavy and valuable 

 timber it is necessary to suspend action until the timber can be re- 

 moved if actual use for agriculture, not withholding from use for 

 purposes of timber speculation, is to be brought about. A number 

 of other applications have been suspended pending the general classi- 

 fication of the forests in which they are located. 



The survey of claims. — The preliminary survey under which land 

 is listed fur settlement under the act of June 11, 1906, is made at the 

 expense of the Government, but when the entry man comes to make 

 final proof he must file a plat and field notes of a survey of his claim 

 made under direction of the surveyor general. This adds an expense 

 of from $100 to $200 which the settler must bear, and in most cases 

 is a duplication of work. Under a cooperative plan recently effected 

 between the Department of the Interior and the Department of 

 Agriculture, the original survey will be made under direction of the 

 surveyor general by a forest officer designated by him, and the 

 settler will be relieved from additional expense. 



The act of August 10, 1912, made an appropriation of $35,000 for 

 the survey and listing of agricultural lands by metes and bounds 

 under the above-mentioned plan, and provided that no land listed 

 under the act of June 11, 190G, shall pass from the forest until patent 

 issues. This will encourage settlement by removing the obstacle of 

 the cash outlay heretofore necessary to secure patent to the lands, 

 and will place all settlers within the "national forests on an equal basis 

 so far as the cost of survey is concerned. 



Lands withdrawn as administrative sites. — It is sometimes said 

 that agricultural development of national forest lands has been un- 

 necessarily blocked by excessive withdrawals of land for administra- 

 tive use. Both proper protection of the forests and adequate pro- 



