808 JOURNAL Of FORESTRY 



tion principles which have been evolved as a result of long study and 

 experience. 



The presence of agricultural lands in the National Forests was early 

 found by opponents of the Forest Service to be one of the strongest 

 grounds on which they could attack the National Forest system. At 

 the same time the fathers of the National Forest system saw that a new 

 law was necessary for the release of such lands in an orderly and proper 

 manner. 



The first law relating to the presence of agricultural lands in the 

 Forests is found in the Act of June 4, 1897, which provided that lands 

 found to be more valuable for agriculture or mineral should not be re- 

 tained in the National Forests. This act alone was unsatisfactory, 

 since the agricultural tracts were so small and scattered that it was not 

 practicable by executive orders or proclamations to eliminate them and 

 open such lands to the homesteader. This was the reason for a fight 

 for a law which finally resulted in the Act of June 11, 1906. Before 

 the passage of this act, there had been considerable agitation for release 

 of large tracts of alleged agricultural lands. The pressure was there- 

 fore considerable and the Forester issued instructions calling for im- 

 mediate examinations and opening to settlement of agricultural lands 

 which might be applied for. Perhaps more attention was given at this 

 time to immediate action than anything else. Possibly immediate action 

 was the greatest public need. However, the natural result under the 

 loose instructions, lack of experience, and haste was the opening among 

 the agricultural lands of many tracts having little or no permanent 

 agricultural value and some tracts having a considerable timber value. 

 This continued through 1906, 1907, and 1908. In 1909, 1910, and 191 1 

 examinations of large numbers of applications continued, the only dif- 

 ference being that whereas formerly the examinations were made by a 

 few men traveling from one National Forest to another and often un- 

 familiar with local conditions, they were now made more largely by the 

 ranger force, which consisted of men familiar with local conditions, but 

 lacking in perspective or basic understanding of the real value and pur- 

 pose of the work. The action considered proper was in a great number 

 of cases found inconsistent with earlier action which had been taken. 

 Thus was given cause for considerable agitation and complaint. 



The establishment of the district organization in 1908 was the great- 

 est step ever taken for the solution of lands problems. Men more in 

 touch with field conditions had more authority and thus an opportunity 

 to better investigate and arrive at a more clear understanding of the 

 problems. About 1910 we saw clearly that classification of whole 



