67 



Paragraph 4 is as follows: 



4. In all Government cases before registers and receivers involving lands or claims 

 within a National Forest the Chief of Field Division and the District Law Officer 

 shall each be served with notice of all motions, orders, and decisions required to be 

 noticed under the rules in cases of private contests. The proper law officers of the 

 Department of Agriculture shall also have a right of appeal from any decision by the 

 Commissioner of the General Land Office, and to file motion for review hi the Depart- 

 ment, or take other like action in the same manner as a private contestant; and shall 

 receive like notices of proceedings and decisions. 



This gives the Forest Service the status of a private contestant upon whom, and 

 also by whom, all legal papers in claims contests and appeals must be properly served . 

 It also imposes on the local land officers the duty of furnishing the Assistants to the 

 Solicitor copies of all orders and decisions. It was decided that the right of appeal, 

 herein accorded to the Department of Agriculture, was applicable only to decisions 

 which were final in deciding a case on the merits, and that a refusal by the Commis- 

 sioner of the General Land Office to order a hearing, after the Secretary of Agriculture 

 has procured all the evidence available, on the ground that the report submitted is 

 insufficient, is in effect a decision on the merits, and therefore appealable. 



Conflict of Mining Claim with a June 11, 1906, Application 



(Circular letter of September 16. 1910.) 



Where land covered by a June 11 application is also covered by a mineral appli- 

 cation, the June 11 application should be suspended until the claim has been examined 

 by a mining expert, a report made, and the validity of the mining claim passed upon 

 by the Department of the Interior. In cases in which a mineral application has not 

 been made, and in which existing mining locations do not appear to hav been made 

 in good faith, if the land is of undoubted agricultural value and more valuable for 

 agriculture than for Forest purposes, the applicant should be informed that part of 

 the land is covered by a mineral location, and that the listing of the land as agricul- 

 tural will have no bearing upon the determination of the questions which may arise 

 in a contest before the Interior Department between mineral and agricultural claim- 

 ants; and the applicant should be asked whether, under these circumstances, he 

 desires to exercise his homestead right on the land. If the answer is in the affirmative, 

 the land should be recommended for listing. 



Claims, Relinquishment 



(Circular letter of August 3, 1910.) 



The question has been brought up recently as to the advisability of authorizing 

 exceptions to the provisions of Service Order 40 in instances where relinquishments 

 of entries are desired which cover land needed for ranger-station purposes, and es- 

 spccially where the Forest Service expects to pay the claimant for the improvements 

 on the land. 



The wording of the service order allows of no discretionary exceptions on tho 

 part of Forest officers, and such exceptions can only be made with the approval of 

 the Forester. Therefore when an exception should be made to this order, recom- 

 mendations should be submited to the Forester with the reasons therefor in each 

 specific case. 



