NATIONAL FOREST WORK 



685 



greater definiteness than in the early years of general propaganda. Successful 

 forestry must rest upon a firm foundation of popular understanding and 

 broad cooperation, and the American Forestry Association is the necessary 

 link that unites the professional foresters and the great body of laymen. Its 

 work of education and organization will be needed for many years, and the 

 retiring secretary urges, out of his experience and knowledge, a continued, 

 increased and revitalized support of the Association by the American public 

 for whose interest alone it exists. 



NATIONAL FOREST WORK 



Relief for Homesteaders 



Settlers on national forests under the 

 act of June 11, iy06, will no longer have 

 to pay for a survey, as they have had to 

 do in the past on unsurveyed lands, when 

 the claim goes to patent. This relieves 

 many settlers under the act, commonly 

 known as the forest homestead law, from 

 a burdensome expense. Relief from this 

 burden has been brought about by an agree- 

 ment between the Secretary of the In- 

 terior and the Secretary of Agriculture, 

 whereby surveys made by employees of 

 the Forest Service will be under the super- 

 vision of the Surveyor General so that they 

 can be accepted by the General Land Office 

 as final. 



Hitherto it has been necessary to make 

 two surveys. Under the terms of the forest 

 homestead law, national forest land cannot 

 be opened to settlement unless the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture has recommended to the 

 Secretary of the Interior that it be listed 

 for settlement; and listing is not possible 

 until a survey has been made. The Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture has no authority to 

 list any land unless an examination has 

 shown that the land is more suitable for 

 agriculture than for forest purposes. So 

 when land is applied for, employees of the 

 Department of Agriculture are sent to as- 

 certain its character, and at the same time 

 make a survey of it by metes and bounds 

 if a survey is necessary. 



This survey, however, could not be ac- 

 cepted by the land department as a basis 

 for patent, because only surveys under the 

 supervision of the Surveyor General can, 

 under the law, be accepted as a basis for 

 passing title. In consequence, under the 

 procedure provided for when patent is 

 sought to unsurveyed lands, the settler on 

 land within a national forest has had to 

 pay for a second survey. This has been 

 felt to be especially hard because it has 

 subjected settlers on national forests to 

 an expense which settlers on surveyed 

 public lands do not have to bear. Since 

 it merely duplicated the work of the first 

 survey, there seemed no reason why this 

 first survey might not answer both for 

 listing the land and for patenting it. 



The survey for listing, made by forest 

 officers, has always been without expense 

 to the prospective homesteader. Under the 

 new arrangement, the field expenses of the 

 survey will continue to be paid by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, so that the appli- 

 cant will merely be called on to meet the 

 cost of checking up and platting the sur- 

 veys by the Surveyor General. This will 

 remove one of the greatest objections to 

 the working of the forest homestead law. 

 The officials of both the Department of 

 Agriculture and the Department of the In- 

 terior are pleased that the way has been 

 found, through co-operation in the surveys, 

 to simplify the procedure, cut out a dupli- 

 cation of work, and lessen the cost of 

 settling upon agricultural lands within na- 

 tional forests. 



The Appalachian National Forest 



The work of examination of lands for 

 purchase for national forests in the Appa- 

 lachian Mountains is in progress and data 

 is being gathered for submission later to 

 the commission, which will probably meet 

 soon after the reassembling of Congress. 

 The report of the Geological Survey on the 

 White Mountain lands will not be made 

 until spring. Experiments are in progress 

 from which the experts of the Survey ex- 

 pect to obtain definite scientific data which 

 will be conclusive from the point of view 

 which they have adopted as to the effect of 

 forest cover upon streamflow on the White 

 Mountain watersheds. The report has been 

 postponed to await the result of these ex- 

 periments, but is promised in the spring 

 in time for action before the close of the 

 current fiscal year. 



The price at which some of the White 

 Mountain lands are held may stand in the 

 way of their purchase by the government. 

 These prices in some cases are higher than 

 the government can pay and unless the 

 owners will meet the government half-way, 

 their attitude may be an obstacle in the 

 way of the accomplisment of this great 

 public improvement. 



