228 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE OF ROADS, TRAILS. BRIDGES, ETC. 



Mr. Ander.sox. Wo will take up the next item, page 163, for the 

 construction and maintenance of roads, trails, bridges, etc. 



Colonel (iREKi.KV. I'nder this item there is provision for an in- 

 crease (»f .S2.S. ()()() from .§425,000 to S448.000. This is the item 

 upon which tlie service has to rely chiefly in extending over our 

 157.000,000 acres of land, telephone lines, lookout towers, quarters 

 for tlie rangers, cabins for the shelter of forest guards, bridges, and 

 other improvements needed in protection and administration. "We 

 are making fair progress in the construction of these improvements. 

 For example, we have completed 417 lookout cabins or other struc- 

 tures at tlie points where the lookout watchmen must be stationed 

 during the summer season. We need about 200 additional structures 

 of that character to complete the system. We have constructed to 

 date nearlv 28,000 miles of telephone lines to connect up the field 

 force and permit of its quick mobilization in case of fire. 



We still need about 7,000 miles of telephone lines and have other 

 urgent improvements to build which run up to a good many hun- 

 dreds of thousands of dollars. As a part oi good business atlminis- 

 tration we are finding it unavoidable to spend about 8200.000 per 

 year out of this fund on the maintenance of the improvements already 

 constructed which, of course, reduces materially our ability to con- 

 struct new improvements. 



The increase of 823,000 which is requested in this item is sought for 

 the specific purpose of constructing more range improvements. We 

 have been anle this past year to put $25,000 into the construction 

 of fences, either boundary fences or division fences on our range 

 lands, the development of water on stock ranges which- were not 

 fully utilized because of the lack of water, and the grubbing out of 

 poisonous plants from valuable forage land which was not being 

 used because of excessive losses of livestock from larkspur, loco weed, 

 and other poisonous plants. I spent the greater part of the past 

 summer in a personal inspection of our grazing situation in the 

 regions where it is in its most intensive form. I tab. Arizona, and 

 New Mexico, and became satisfied, from my own investigation and 

 check upon the recommendations I had received from many other 

 men in the service and outside, that the Government ought to do a 

 good deal more than we have yet been able to attempt in fencing 

 and inipioving these national forest ranges. 



In Arizona particularly we are finding it extremely diflicult to con- 

 trol our ranges to the extent necessary for their protection. That is 

 still an open-range country primarily. The outside public range has 

 partly <lisaj)p('an'(l on account of settlement, and th(> rest of it has, 

 to a large extent, become seiiously run down on account of exces- 

 sive and unregulated use. Tliat means, from the verv nature of 

 things, (bat tlie live stock on the outside are constantly crowding 

 into theriational forests. The drifting of unperniitted stock from 

 the outsi<le ranges onto the national forests is a constant problem 

 whicli we liavc on our bands. ^Ve can control it in part by trespass 

 u-ocecdings and lliat sort of thing, but we can never control it ef- 

 'ectively and build up our own ranges to the extent that thev should 

 )c built up until we do a lot of fencing in that countrv. l" became 

 p<'rs(»nally c.mvinccd of that fact this past suninier. 



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