278 Forestry Quarterly. 



relationship they sustain to local stock interests and the difficulty 

 of properly regulating grazing were they excluded. Such^ for instance, 

 might be a narrow strip of foothill or bench land, just outside the 

 reserve, adjacent to the cultivated valley lands, and the protection 

 of which from over-grazing by transient stock is essential to the 

 proper handling of local stock. This protection of local interests is 

 particularly desirable where, upon the ability of local stockmen to 

 secure proper summer range depends their ability to secure a market 

 for the agricultural products of their ranches, in the form of winter- 

 feed for their cattle, sheep or horses. 



Field work and reports are similar to those above described. 



ELIMINATIONS FROM EXISTING RESERVES. 



These consist principally of two classes: 



(1) Strictly agricultural or grazing lands on the exterior bound- 

 aries of forest reserves. These cases occur chiefly in the older re- 

 serves, or where the imaginary boundary was established in a large 

 unsurveyed area. Following the survey, readjustment is sometimes 

 necessary. 



(2) Agricultural lands within the exterior boundaries of re- 

 serves. The examination and listing for entry of these lands is au- 

 thorized by the Agricultural Homestead Act, passed June 11, 1906. 

 Under this Act, upon application to the Forester, agricultural lands 

 in forest reserves are being examined and described either by legal 

 subdivisions or by metes and bounds. Unsurveyed lands can be 

 taken as readily as those which are surveyed. After examination, 

 the Forest Service recommends to the General Land Office the de- 

 scriptions to be listed for entry in the local land offices. 



Only lands chiefly valuable for agriculture and not needed for ad- 

 ministrative purposes by the Forest Service or for some other pub- 

 lic use will be classified under this Act. The officer in charge of 

 each reserve is required to send in for reservation a list of the lands 

 needed for administrative purposes, and the examiner is also in- 

 structed to consider this question at the time of his examination. The 

 reserve business is still in its infancy, and it is expected that before 

 many years the administrative force will be increased to such an ex- 

 tent that there will be a ranger to every township, and this ranger 

 will be permanent, and need a headquarters cabin, a small piece of 

 agricultural land, and a horse pasture. The future rather than the 



