EXAMINATIONS FOR HOMESTEADS IN THE NATIONAL 



FORESTS. 



D. G. White. 



It is the policy of the Forest Service to put lands within 

 National Forests to their highest economic use. To this end 

 the Federal Government created the Forest Homestead Act of 

 June 11, 1906. This act is an extension of the homestead law 

 to tracts examined under government authority, a-nd found to 

 be of agricultural value, with the essential difference that 

 there is no provision for commutation ; that is, the applicant is 

 required to live on the land the entire five years and is not 

 allowed to prove up at the end of fourteen months by paying 

 so much per acre for the land. The Secretary of Agriculture 

 is authorized, in his discretion, to examine and ascertain, upon 

 application or otherwise, as to the location and extent of land 

 within permanent or temporary forest reserves, excepting cer- 

 tain counties of California, that are chiefly valuable for agri- 

 culture, and which in his opinion may be occupied for agricul- 

 tural purposes without injury to the forest reserves, and which 

 are not needed for public purposes. He may list and describe 

 the same by metes and bounds, or otherwise, and file the lists 

 and descriptions with the Secretary of the Interior, with the 

 request that the said lands be opened for entry. 



Since all the land on the National Forests has not been 

 surveyed the Act would include all surveyed and unsurveyed 

 agricultural land, and since the recommendations for listing 

 lands are left to the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture, 

 he may instruct that such lands be suspended from listing 

 as water-sheds, power sites, lands on which standing timber 

 is of considerable importance, or lands which are regarded 

 by the Forest Service to have a higher use than cultivation 

 by one settler. On the Kootenai National Forest provision 

 was made whereby land on which the standing timber ran 

 four thousand board feet per acre was surveyed but suspended 

 from listing until the timber had been cut and removed. 

 When the examiner saw that the timber was of considerable 



