A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1165 



A basic requirement of all the laws listed in table 1 is that the 

 values revested in public ownership through exchange must be at 

 least as great as the values relinquished by the public. To guarantee 

 such result, careful and detailed examinations, cruises, and appraisals 

 of both offered and selected properties or resources are made by quali- 

 fied members of the Forest Service. The resulting reports, maps, 

 and estimates of comparative values are then carefully reviewed and 

 checked successively by the forest supervisor, the regional forester or 

 his immediate assistants, and the forester or his immediate assistants, 

 and no exchange is recommended to the Secretary of the Interior 

 until all of these reviewing agencies are satisfied that in every respect 

 and detail it fully meets the spirit and letter of the law under which 

 it is being made. A further safeguard to public interest rests in the 

 fact that practically all exchanges now consummated are made under 

 laws which require that publicity be given to pending exchanges by 

 advertisement in newspapers of general circulation within the counties 

 in which the offered lands and the selected lands and /or stumpage 

 are situated; so that each such exchange is a matter of common 

 knowledge and subject to protest if any belief exists that it would be 

 against public interest. Present legislative and administrative prin- 

 ciples and procedures in national-forest land-exchange work thus 

 completely eliminate any possibility that valuable public resources 

 will pass into private ownership except under circumstances wholly 

 in the public interest and at valuations equitable to the public. 



CASH PURCHASES 



^ By the time definite form was given to the policy of Federal acqui- 

 sition of forest lands in the Eastern States for purposes of watershed 

 protection, little remained in the way^ of Federally owned lands or 

 timber resources within the territory involved. With negligible ex- 

 ceptions the lands essential to the program were privately owned, and 

 could be acquired only by cash payments. The act of March 1, 1911, 

 (36 Stat. 961), commonly known as the Weeks law, accordingly made 

 and authorized appropriations to cover costs of purchase. Further 

 appropriations later were authorized by the acts of April 30, 1928, 

 and June 2, 1930. The record of total appropriations to date is as 

 follows: 



Fiscal year: 



1910 (all reverted to Treasury) $1,000,000.00 



1911 (of which $1,982,679.24 reverted to Treasury) 2, 000, 000. 00 



1912 2,000,000.00 



1913 _. 2,000,000.00 



1914__ 2,000,000.00 



1915 ___ ___ 2,000,000.00 



1916__ None 



