38 ANNUAL REPORTS OP DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



meaning of the act and (2) whether the State has legally assented 

 to the provisions of the act and is in a position to submit a program 

 or scheme of work covering the five-year period and to meet the 

 requirements of the act as to funds and maintenance of the roads 

 constructed. This determination has been made in the case of 

 nine States and, after certain details have been arranged, the 

 department will be prepared to cooperate with all of them. Three 

 States will await action by their legislatures before assenting to the 

 provisions of the act. Tentative drafts of bills providing for State 

 highway commissions have been prepared for two States which do not 

 now have a highway agency within the meaning of the act. Eight 

 States have submitted specific projects for consideration. In one of 

 these States four projects have been approved tentatively and the 

 necessary project agreements are in the course of execution. 



The appropriation of $1,000,000 provided by section 8 of the act 

 for the construction of roads and trails within or partly within the 

 National Forests has been apportioned among the various States in 

 which National Forests are located. Applications for the construc- 

 tion of roads in the Forests must be filed in the district office of the 

 Forest Service for the district within which the proposed road is 

 located. In States having highway departments the applications, 

 before filing, must be referred to them for recommendation. Many 

 applications have been submitted to the district offices and now are 

 under consideration. 



THE NATIONAL FOREST ENTERPRISE. 



There have been many important developments — legislative and 

 administrative — during the past year in connection with the National 

 Forests. The value of the properties to the public and the use made 

 of them increased steadily. Their returns to the Treasury last year, 

 exceeding $2,800,000— an advance of more than $340,000 over the 

 previous year, are only a partial indication of their service. The 

 land classification work, having for its object the determination of 

 the areas which permanently should be included in the Forests, 

 progressed very rapidly. As a result there remained in public owner- 

 ship at the close of the year 155,420,280 acres, several million acres 

 having been restored to the public domain or opened to entry under 

 the Forest Homestead law. There was a marked increase in the equip- 

 ment of the Forests with roads, a matter of prime importance for 



