15 



culture, so that his salary may be paid from the appropriation made by 

 the act of March 4, 1907, above mentioned. 



Sec. 24 of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1095) 

 authorized the President of the United States to set apart and reserve 

 as public reservations public lands bearing forests in any State or Terri- 

 tory, and by public proclamation to declare the establishment of such 

 reservations and the limits thereof. The act of Congress of June 4, 

 1897 (30 Stat., 11), provided that all public land theretofore or there- 

 after set aside and reserved as public forest reserves under the act of 

 1901 referred to should, as far as practicable, be controlled and admin- 

 istered in accordance with the following provisions : " No public forest 

 reservation shall be established except to improve and protect the forest 

 within the reservation, or for the purpose of securing favorable condi- 

 tions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for 

 the use and necessities of citizens of the United States." The said act 

 of June 4, 1897, also authorized the Secretary of the Interior, who then 

 had jurisdiction over public forest reservations, to " make such rules 

 and regulations and establish such service as will insure the objects of 

 such reservations, namely, to regulate their occupancy and use and to 

 preserve the forests thereon from destruction." A discussion of the act 

 of June 4, 1897, which shows the public nature and purposes of forest 

 reservations may be found in the case of U. S. vs. Shannon (151 Fed. 

 Rep., 863). 



By the act of February 1, 1905 (33 Stat., 628), the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture was authorized to execute or cause to be executed all laws 

 affecting public lands theretofore or thereafter reserved under the act 

 of 1891 referred to, " and acts supplemental to and amendatory thereof," 

 excepting certain laws which affect the title and which are referred to 

 in a general way in the first clause of the act. 



The act of February 15, 1901 (31 Stat., 790), the fourth section of the 

 act of February 1, 1905, above referred to, and the act of February 8, 

 1905 (33 Stat., 706), authorized certain uses of the national forests by 

 the public and by the Government, and the appropriation act of March 

 4, 1907 (34 Stat., 1256), provided appropriations for the protection and 

 utilization of the national forests. 



The act of Congress of July 2, 1902 (32 Stat, 731), upon which the 

 President based his proclamation creating the Luquillo Forest Reserve, 

 authorized the President " to make * * * such reservations of public 

 lands and buildings belonging to the United States in the island of 

 Porto Rico for military, naval, light-house, marine-hospital, post-offices, 

 custom-houses, United States courts, and such other, public purposes as 

 he may deem necessary." The President evidently took his authority 

 to create the forest reservation from the words " and other public pur- 

 poses " of the act, and since the act of 1901 authorized the creation of 

 forest reserves in the States and Territories " as public reservations," 

 and since the act of June 4, 1897, refers to such reservations as " public 

 forest " reservations and expressly shows that the objects of the reserva- 

 tions were to secure favorable conditions of water flows,' furnish a con- 

 tinuous supply of timber for the use of the public, and to regulate the 

 occupancy by the public of the lands reserved, and since the other acts 

 referred to provided for the use of the lands and resources of the national 

 forests by the public, it seems clear that the reservation of the national 

 forest in Porto Rico was within the authority of the President, and that 

 the nature of the reservation made is similar to that of the other 

 national forests made under the authority of the act of 1891, before and 

 after the act of June 4, 1897, and that the act of July 1, 1902, is supple- 

 mental to the act of March 3, 1891, and that the jurisdiction to admin- 

 ister such reserve was transferred to the Secretary of Agriculture by the 

 act of February 1, 1905, above referred to, subject only to the excep- 

 tions named therein, which apply equally to other national forests. The 

 reservations named in the act of 1902 are for the use of the Govern- 

 ment in exercising its functions for the respective purposes indicated by 

 the nature of such reservations, and the same may be said of national 

 forests. They are used and occupied by Government officers to protect 

 the public waters, to protect and increase the timber supply, to experi- 

 ment and investigate timber conditions, and to facilitate the uses of 

 such reservations by the public in much the same way as post-offices 



