34 LAWS APPLICABLE TO THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



elude the names of claimants, local land office, and serial number of 

 entry or application, and character of entries or filings. The chief of 

 field division will transmit the lists and estimates received from the 

 district assistant to the Solicitor to the Commissioner of the General 

 Land Office at the same time he submits his estimates for hearings in- 

 volving lands in his district outside of National Forests. When these 

 lists and estimates are received in the General Land Office the appro- 

 priation will be allotted for the quarter and each chief of field divi- 

 sion will be advised of the amount which will be allowed for forest 

 cases and he will advise the district assistant to the Solicitor thereof. 

 Payment for the expenses of hearings from the appropriation so 

 allotted will be made by special disbursing agents upon proper vouch- 

 ers, as is now provided for Government contests in cases outside of 

 National Forests, but such vouchers must be approved by the district 

 assistant to the Solicitor and by the chief of field division before pay- 

 ment is made. 



Respectfully, 



Fraxklix K. Laxe, 



Secretary of the Interior. 



David F. Houstox, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 

 Washington, D. C. August 5, 191-5. 



AGRICULTURAL LANDS IN NATIONAL FORESTS. 



Forest homestead act of June 11. 1906 (31 Stat.. 233). 



The Secretary of Agriculture may. in his discretion, and he is 

 hereby authorized, upon application or otherwise, to examine and 

 ascertain as to the location and extent of lands within permanent or 

 temporary forest reserves, except the following counties in the State 

 of California. Inyo. Tulare. Kern. San Luis Obispo. Santa Barbara, 

 Ventura. Los Angeles. San Bernardino. Orange. Eiverside, and San 

 Diego : which are chiefly valuable for agriculture, and which, in his 

 opinion, may be occupied for agricultural purposes without injury 

 to the forest reserves, and which are not needed for public purposes, 

 and may list and describe the same by metes and bounds, or other- 

 wise, and file the lists and descriptions with the Secretary of the 

 Interior, with the request that the said lands be opened to entry in 

 accordance with the provisions of the homestead laws and this act. 



Upon the filing of any such list or description the Secretary of the 

 Interior shall declare the said lands open to homestead settlement 

 and entry in tracts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in area 

 and not exceeding one mile in length, at the expiration of sixty days 

 from the riling of the list in the land office of the district within 

 which the lands are located, during which period the said list or de- 

 scription shall be prominently posted in the land office and advertised 

 for a period of not less than four weeks in one newspaper of general 

 circulation published in the county in which the lands are situated : 

 Provided. That any settler actually occupying and in good faith 

 claiming such lands for agricultural purposes prior to January first, 

 nineteen hundred and six. and who shall not have abandoned the 

 same, and the person, if qualified to make a homestead entry, upon 

 whose application the land proposed to be entered was examined and 



