202 



FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

 TIMBER CULTURE ACTS Continued. 



Year. 



1896 

 1897 



1897 

 1897 



Congress. 



54th, 1st sess. - 

 54th, 2d seas . . 



54th, 2(1 seas 

 ...do... 



House in 

 which origi- 

 nated. 



II. R. 4959.. 



Senate 3328 



Senate 3689 

 H. R. 10314 . 



Object of bill. 



Action taken. 



To repeal section 8 of an act entitled "An act to repeal 

 timber-culture laws and for other purposes," approved 

 Mar. 3, 1819. 



To amend an act entitled "An act to repeal the timber- 

 culture laws, and for other purposes." 



To amend an act entitled "An act to repeal the timber-cul- 

 ture laws, and for other purpoes." 



Referred to Committee on Public 

 Lands. 



Referred to Committee on Public 

 Lands. Reported back. Passed 

 Senate. Referred to House Com- 

 mittee on Public Lands. Reported 

 back with amendments. Debated, 

 amended, and passed House. Sen- 

 ate concurs in House amendments. 

 Examined and signed. Senate re- 

 quests President to return bill. 

 President complies with Senate re- 

 quest. Debated an d referred to 

 Senate Committee on the Judiciary. 

 Committee discharged, bill recon- 

 sidered, and House amendments 

 nonconcured in. Conference ap- 

 pointed. Conference report made 

 and agreed to. Examined and 

 signed. 



Referred to Committee on Public 

 LandB. 



Referred to Committee on Public 

 Lands. Reported back. 



FOE THE ESTABLISHMENT AND ENDOWMENT OF FORESTRY SCHOOLS. 



RECENT LEGISLATION. 



[The following legislation was embodied in the sundry civil appropriation bill, which became 

 a law in 1897. This law enables the Secretary of the Interior to formulate a plan for the proper 

 administration of the forest reservations, but its provisions can hardly become operative without 

 a sufficient appropriation to carry it into effect. Plans for the survey of the reserves, as provided 

 in the following law, are now (June 24) about matured.] 



AN ACT making appropriations for sundry civil expenses, etc., approved June 4, 1897. 

 (1897. Fifty-fifth Congress, first session.) 



The sections of the bill referring to the forest reservations are as follows : 



For the survey of the public lands that have beeii or may hereafter be designated as forest reserves by 

 Executive proclamation, under section twenty-four of the act of Congress approved March third, eighteen hundred 

 and ninety-one, entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes," and including public lands 

 adjacent thereto, which may be designated for survey by the Secretary of the Interior, one hundred and fifty 

 thousand dollars, to be immediately available: Provided, That to remove any doubt which may exist pertaining to 

 the authority of the President thereunto, the President of the United States is hereby authorized and empowered to 

 revoke, modify, or suspend any and all such Executive orders and proclamations, or any part thereof, from time to 

 time as he shall deem best for the public interests: Provided, That the Executive orders and proclamations dated 

 February twenty-second, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, setting apart and reserving certain lands in the 

 States of Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and South Dakota as forest reservations, be, and they are 

 hereby, suspended, and the lands embraced therein restored to the public domain the same as though said orders and 

 proclamations had not been issued: Provided, further, That lands embraced in such reservations, not otherwise 

 disposed of before March first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, shall again become subject to the operations of 

 said orders and proclamations as now existing or hereafter modified by the President. 



The surveys herein provided for shall be made, under the supervision of the Director of the Geological Survey, 

 by such person or persons as may be employed by or under him for that purpose, and shall be executed under 

 instructions issued by the Secretary of the Interior; and if subdivision surveys shall be found to be necessary, they 

 shall be executed under the rectangular system, as now provided by law. The plats and field notes prepared shall 

 be approved and certified to by the Director of the Geological Survey, and two copies of the field. notes shall be 

 returned, one for the files in the'United States surveyor-general's office of the State in which the reserve is situated, 



