no 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



recommend that the agricultural char- 

 acter of the lands should be officially as- 

 certained, as has been the habit hitherto 

 in the case of agricultural and mineral 

 lands. 



The effect of the foregoing provisions 

 is to give an intending settler the right 

 to apply for the particular agricultural 

 land he wants and sixty days' prefer- 

 ence in entering it. Through survey 

 by metes and bounds the settler is 

 enabled to take the full amount of 160 

 acres of actual agricultural land. The 

 principal danger in the administration 

 of this plan is likely to arise from the 

 desire of others than actual settlers to 

 get possession of valuable timber lands 

 on the plea that they are agricultural in 

 character, to cut the timber from the 

 lands, and then abandon them, to the 

 serious injury of the interests which the 

 reserves are created to serve. 



Such an abuse would be greatly facil- 

 itated by the commutation clause of 

 the Homestead Act, whereas actual set- 

 tlers on agricultural lands in forest re- 

 serves would seldom or never suffer 

 hardship from the requirement of five 

 years' residence. Agricultural lands in 

 forest reserves are not wholly on the 

 same plane as such lands outside, be- 

 cause their use must be subservient to 

 the purposes for which the reserves were 

 created. Their actual occupation by 

 permanent settlers is of the first impor- 

 tance to this object, and shifting of own- 

 ership during the first years of settle- 

 ment and development would be of seri- 

 ous injury to the reserves. We are of 

 the opinion that to allow the application 

 of the commutation clause of the Home- 

 stead Act to lands in the forest reserves 

 would tend to defeat the object of the 

 opening of these lands to agricultural 

 entry and would embarrass the admin- 

 istration of the reserves. 



LANDS RELEASED FROM TEMPORAKV 

 WITHDRAWAL. 



In making forest reserves it is usually 

 necessary to withdraw temporarily, 

 pending segregation, considerable areas 

 of land which are known to contain 

 forest growth. These temporary with- 

 drawals are made usually of areas larger 

 than will ultimately be proclaimed^as 



forest reserves, in order to enable the 

 officers of the government to ascertain 

 what are the existing conditions and to 

 draw the boundaries with care and with- 

 out interference growing out of specu- 

 lative entries or selections made not for 

 settlement, but to secure certain advan- 

 tages which may grow out of the crea- 

 tion of the forest reserve. For this rea- 

 son temporary withdrawals are essential 

 for the careful delimiting of the forest 

 reserve. When the limits of a forest 

 reserve are determined upon, the ex- 

 cluded lands are restored to entry and 

 settlement. 



Experience has shown that speculative 

 entries or large filings of so-called scrip 

 are frequently made upon such excluded 

 land, to the detriment of actual settlers. 

 Therefore provisions should be made to 

 give actual settlers ample time in which 

 to exercise their rights. Accordingly, 

 the Commission recommends that in the 

 event of the modification or revocation 

 of any order temporarily withdrawing 

 lands from settlement and entry result- 

 ing in the release of such lands from 

 such withdrawal, or in the event of the 

 exclusion or release of lands from any 

 forest reserve established by the Presi- 

 dent, under section 24 of the act ap- 

 proved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act 

 to repeal timber- culture laws, and for 

 other purposes, ' ' the non-mineral public 

 lands so released from a forest reserve, 

 and not otherwise appropriated or re- 

 served, shall become subject to settle- 

 ment from the date of the order or proc- 

 lamation so releasing or excluding them, 

 but shall not become subject to entry, 

 filing, or selection under any law pro- 

 viding for the disposal of non-mineral 

 public lands until after sixty days' notice 

 by such publication as the Secretary of 

 the Interior may prescribe, nor shall 

 they become subject to entry, filing, or 

 selection under any law except the home- 

 stead laws until ninety days after said 

 notice. 



The Commission will continue its in- 

 vestigations and make further report. 



Respectfully submitted. 



W. A. RICHARDS. 

 F. H. NEWELL. 



GlFFORD PlNCHOT. 



