122 LAWS APPLICABLE TO THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



DECISIONS. 



Where judgments are recovered in actions for trespass on National 

 Forests, such amounts thereof as represent punitive damages, costs of 

 suit, or amounts to cover replanting are not such revenues of the Na- 

 tional Forests as are subject to the 25 per cent deduction for distribu- 

 tion to the States and Territories in which the National Forest con- 

 cerned is located. (17 Comp. Dec, 688.) 



A force employed in the District of Columbia to supervise and con- 

 trol the field work of employees engaged in making examinations, 

 surveys, etc., under the Weeks forestry law of March 1, 1911, can not 

 be paid from the appropriation made by that act. (17 Comp. Dec, 

 780.) 



Publications of advertisements affecting national forests made by 

 supervisors or rangers pursuant to written instructions from the 

 Forester, issued under authority of the Secretary of Agriculture, 

 specifying the newspapers to be used are publications authorized by 

 Revised Statutes, section 3828. (13 Comp. Dec, 446.) 



The withholding of moneys due a corporation by the United States 

 is not authorized as a set-off against the liability of such corpora- 

 tion to the United States for indefinite profits arising out of a timber 

 trespass committed by another person. (15 Comp. Dec, 113.) 



Costs adjudged against forest officers in the prosecution by them, 

 before a justice of the peace, of one arrested for setting a fire which 

 spreads to National Forest lands, are not chargeable against the 

 United States and can not be paid from Forest Service appropria- 

 tions. (Comp. Dec. of May 6, 1912; 2 Sol. Op., 693.) 



Expenses of Government officers in going, returning, and in attend- 

 ance on court, when sent away from the usual place of their duties, 

 as witnesses, for the Government, as the result of knowledge obtained 

 in the discharge of their official duties, are payable from the appro- 

 priate appropriation of the department from which they are sent, and 

 not from the judicial appropriations for fees of witnesses. (12 Comp. 

 Dec, 391; see also 14 Comp. Dec, 80 and 516; 15 id., 154, 298 and 

 757.) 



Where authority is exercised by a special class of officers in the 

 arrest of persons for violations of the laws of the United States, all 

 expenses incident to such arrests are defrayed by the Government 

 and paid out of appropriations made for certain purposes, and not 

 until prisoners come into the custody of the United States marshal by 

 virtue of a duly recognized authority can it be said that a judiciary 

 appropriation may be available for the payment of such expenses. 

 (8 Comp. Dec, 127; 11 id., 753; 15 id., 602; 16 id., 371; 17 id., 566.) 



When an offender is arrested by a forest officer for violation of the 

 forestry laws or regulations and taken before a United States Com- 

 missioner, the liability of the judiciary appropriations would com- 

 mence with the complaint and warrant; but in no case would such 

 appropriations be liable for any fees or expenses of the forest officer 

 where it is his duty to aid in the detection, prosecution, and punish- 

 ment for violations of such laws and regulations. (14 Comp. Dec, 

 113.) 



The appropriation for general expenses of the Forest Service can 

 not be used to pay for the support of a prisoner confined in a State 



