THE USE BOOK. 285 



becomes a legal title only upon the identification of the 

 granted sections. Until the identification of the sections by 

 a Government survey the United States retains a special 

 interest in the timber growing in the township sufficient to 

 recover the value of timber cut and removed therefrom. 

 (United States v. Montana Lumber and Manufacturing Co., 

 196 U. S., 573. Syllabus.) 



In a suit brought by the United States for that purpose private 

 surveys made by the railroad company can not be intro- 

 duced as evidence to show that the land from which the 

 timber was cut were odd sections within the grant and in- 

 cluded in a conveyance from the railroad company to the 

 defendants. ( Same. ) 



WITHDRAWAL OF LAND FOB ADMINISTRATIVE SITES. 



[By letter dated March 20, 1908, the Secretary of the Interior 

 held that public land outside the National Forests in the 

 States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, 

 and Wyoming may be withdrawn for use as administrative 

 sites by the Forest Service, notwithstanding the provision 

 of the agricultural appropriation act of March 4, 1907 (34 

 Stat., 1271, Use Book, p. 169), that no addition to National 

 Forests in those States shall be made except by act of 

 Congress. He said:] 



The proposed withdrawal is not to be made under the 

 laws authorizing the creation of forest reserves. The 

 prohibition of the act of March 4, 1907, which was 

 clearly directed against the exercise of authority given 

 by those laws, should not be enlarged by construction 

 to include a prohibition against the exercise of the rec- 

 ognized power of the Executive to set apart portions 

 of the public land for a public use. 



[On May 15, 1908, however, the Comptroller of the Treasury 

 decided that the appropriation for general expenses, Forest 

 Service, made by the said act of March 4, 1907, can not be 

 used for the purchase of administrative sites in these 

 States.] 



