PROGRESS OP LAND CLASSIFICATION IN NAT'L FORESTS 7 



and took his pick. It was easy to handle his case, for his land 

 was really farm land. The timber speculator had the most 

 valuable tract of timber, for the same reason, because he had 

 his pick. His land could not be classified as " chiefly valuable 

 for agriculture ' ', and he has consequently remained dissatisfied 

 with the workings of the law. 



The applications from outsiders have, in the main, been from 

 people who were honest in their desire for farm land. For a 

 time the belief was cherished that this represented a form of 

 timber homestead, another opportunity to get a stake at Uncle 

 Sam 's expense, but that misapprehension was soon disposed of, 

 and only in exceptional cases are heavily timbered lands now 

 applied for. 



The classification of land which has been done by the Forest 

 Service in carrying out the provisions of the Forest Homestead 

 Act has been exceedingly interesting because of its infinite va- 

 riety and the elements of human interest which it involves. 

 Every forest has been searched from foothill to timberline for 

 areas suitable for farm purposes. Up to June 30, 1915, the last 

 date for which total figures are available, a total of 18,010 in- 

 dividual tracts, involving a grand total of 1,907,608 acres, had 

 been listed by this procedure and made available for agricul- 

 tural use. These special areas may be considered "hand 

 picked ", and represent the cream of possible farm lands in the 

 National Forests. During the fiscal year ending as above 2,336 

 individual areas were listed, involving a total of 238,525 acres. 

 On a great many forests it is becoming apparent that the limit 

 of land at all fitted for agriculture has been reached, and that 

 there will soon be a falling off in the number of areas listed 

 annually. 



Reaching the limit of available land on many of the forests 

 will have little present influence on the advance of agricultural 

 development. This is due to the fact that upon many of the 

 National Forests listing has been in excess of actual demand 

 for settlement. The result has been that although the land 

 has been listed it has not always been filed upon, and still less 

 frequently has filing been followed by improvement and culti- 

 vation. 



