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DIVISION OF FORESTRY. 613 
That all applications for ‘‘lumberman’s license” are to be made to the Commis- 
sioner of Forests, and must be accompanied by a statement of the location and ap- 
‘proximate amount of the t:mber sought by the applicant, together with a certificate 
of the local forest inspector to the effect that the lands on which such timber‘is sit- 
uated are of the first class and not covered by any of the local licenses as provided 
in the act, nor presumably needed for such within a reasonable time. Such appli- 
cations shall be considered in the months of August and September only, and no 
license shall be granted before at least three months have expired from the date of 
application and the same has been advertised three times in three local papers, if 
there be so many, of the district in which the licensee intends to locate. If the same 
location is seught by more than one applicant priority of application shall rot rule 
as to applications made in the same month, but the application for the smaliest loca- 
tion shall in such case receive first consideration. And wherever a survey of the 
‘location is necessary the applicant shall pay half of the expense of such survey, and 
whenever the licensee begins operations upon his location he must notify the local 
forest inspector, and all cutting and disposal of the timber and other forest products 
shall be done under the supervision of the local inspector and in accordance with 
such regulations as the Commissioner of Forests shall prescribe. 
To insure a proper administration of such a law, to prevent waste 
and loss by fires, and to establish the nucleus for the future forestry 
system of this great nation which we must ultimately adopt, a new 
bureau in the Department of the Interior is Bape with a forest 
commissioner and four assistant commissioners, acting as a forestry 
board. A division into districts of proper size of the forest lands 
and forest reserves remaining under the control of the forestry board, 
and a thorough organization of a local service with forest inspectors 
and rangers, is also provided. 
This is no doubt a thorough-going reform of the present settlement 
and disposition laws, which the Public Lands Commission of 1883 
has characterizéd as ‘‘the cancers that destroy the public timber 
lands.” 
None but such a thorough organization can be expected to guard 
the national property, of which under the present neglect the nation 
is annually robbed to the extent of from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000, 
not counting the damage done by fires, the passing of timber lands 
by fraud into the hands of speculators, and the amount of timber 
which is legally obtained by railroad companies and others. 
But, as has been stated repeatedly, the forest cover in the locali- 
ties in which the buik of the public timber lands is situated, notably 
on the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific slopes, subserve a function 
which makes its material value of only secondary importance. It 
has become already evident that the denudation of mountain sides in 
the region under consideration has impaired the regularity of water- 
flow, upon which irrigation in the arid valleys below depends. 
Preserved in continuous reproductivity, the natural forest cover 
presents better and cheaper water reservoirs than the artificial struct- 
ures which are already talked about and for which millions of dol- 
lars will be asked by the irrigators and ambitious engineers. 
The interest of the nation, therefore, in properly administering this 
property reaches beyond that of any material advantage. 
And certainly in these mountain forests, in this legislation for their 
proper administration, lies the immediate national interest in forestry. 
The Forestry Division, without forests, without means and oppor- 
tunities to engage in active, practical forestry work, can do but little 
good, except by furnishing information which may guide the legis- 
lator or the forest manager, the planter or the consumer of wood, 
and by bringing the influence of the Department to bear in modify- 
ing the cxisting methods of treating the forests. 
To satisfy the demands of these various interests a large number 
