1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



327 



districts, churches, or cooperative or- 

 ganizations of settlers desiring to con- 

 struct roads, ditches, reservoirs, or 

 similar improvements for mutual or 

 public benefit. Free use of material 

 to be employed in any business will 

 be refused, as, for example, to saw- 

 mill proprietors, owners of large es- 

 tablishments or commercial enter- 

 prises, and companies or corporations. 

 The free use privilege will not be giv- 

 en to any trespasser. 



Except in cases of great and unus- 

 ual need, no applicant will be given 

 more than two free use permits in one 

 year, nor may the aggregate amount 

 of material granted in the two per- 

 mits exceed $20 in value, ex- 

 cept in the case of schools or 

 road districts, churches and non- 

 commercial cooperative organizations, 

 when the supervisor may, in his discre- 

 tion, extend the amount to any value 

 not exceeding $100. The duration of 

 any permit will be fixed by the issuing 

 officer, and will not exceed six months. 

 In cases of unusual emergency, how- 

 ever, it may be extended by the su- 

 pervisor, or, if for $20 or less, by a 

 ranger authorized to grant free use. 

 Wood for Street Paving 



On account of the increasing inter- 

 est in wood as a material for street 

 pavements the Bureau of Forestry will 

 at once make a thorough study of 

 American woods for that purpose. 

 The experience of European and Aus- 

 tralian cities indicates that wooden 

 pavements properly laid are superior 

 to such pavements as asphaltum and 

 macadam, in the particulars of cool- 

 ness, quietness, safety of footing and 

 sanitary qualities. 



The sanitary advantages are apt to 

 result only when the wooden blocks 

 are thoroughly creosoted, and in lay- 

 ing are filled in between with creosote 

 and tar. The sanitary influence of 

 creosote is widely known. Its value 

 as a wood preservative is dependent 

 upon its antiseptic and insoluble prep- 

 erties. With wood which has been 

 thoroughly creosoted decay is practi- 

 cally eliminated. The creosoted wood- 



en pavement would therefore not 

 prove by any means a hospitable place 

 for disease germs of any kind. 



The woods used with the best re- 

 sults for paving in the past have been 

 Australian hardwoods. American 

 woods have not had a wide test in 

 thoroughly well laid pavements. One 

 American hardwood, the red gum, has 

 been tried quite extensively in Eng- 

 land with very satisfactory results. 

 There are unquestionably many Amer- 

 ican woods just as valuable for pave- 

 ments as any of the Australian hard- 

 woods. The woods which especially 

 commend themselves for paving pur- 

 poses are northern hardwoods, such 

 as birch, beech, and maple, of which 

 there is a large supply and for which, 

 up to this time, there has not been a 

 ready market. If these woods prove 

 satisfactory their advantage over Aus- 

 tralian hardwoods in point of cheap- 

 ness for use in the United States, will 

 be readily seen. In its investigation 

 the Bureau of Forestry will give its 

 first attention to these woods. 



Private and State Rights in 

 Reserves 



The new regulations for the use of 

 forest reserves contain the following 

 rules as to private and state rights 

 in the reserves : 



Persons having valid claims under 

 the public land laws, or legal titles to 

 land within forest reserves, are free 

 to occupy and enjoy their holdings, 

 but must not interfere with the pur- 

 poses for which the reserves are cre- 

 ated, and must not cut timber or make 

 use of forest reserve land or rights 

 thereon without a permit, except with- 

 in the limits of their claims, and there 

 not to the extent of committing tres- 

 pass. 



All questions involving titles to such 

 claims are entirely within the- juris- 

 diction of the Secretary of the Inte- 

 rior. 



No land claims can be initiated in 

 a forest reserve except mining claims, 

 which may be sought for, located, de- 

 veloped, and patented in accordance 



