non-Federal forest land 
showed that fire protection 
cooperation should be 
extended to 35 States and 
an estimated 315 million 
acres of land nationwide. In 
November 1920, the 
Secretary of Agriculture 
asked for additional 
supplemental appropriations 
and requested authority to 
extend cooperation with the 
States to any non-Federal 
forest land. Since it would 
require new legislation, the 
House Appropriations 
Committee could not grant 
the authority. The committee 
did, however, agree to 
consider an increase in 
appropriations for the 
following fiscal year. A strong 
case was presented, and the 
appropriation was raised to 
$400,000 for fiscal year (FY) 
1922. It remained at that 
level through FY 1925, after 
which the Clarke-McNary Act 
became the authorizing 
legislation (Peirce and Stahl 
1964). 
Because so few Southern 
States were qualified for the 
Weeks law cooperative 
fire-control provision, the 
amounts received were small. 
They ranged from a total of 
$6,000 in 1916 to a total of 
$108,000 in 1925. More detail 
is contained in table 1. 
By 1921, expanding State 
programs and increased 
12 
Federal funds made it 
desirable for the Federal 
funds to be available for use 
in any aspect of the 
cooperative fire-control effort. 
Thus, in July 1921, the policy 
for use of Federal funds was 
Changed, and each 
cooperating State was given 
an allotment that could be 
used for any legitimate 
fire-protection purpose. 
Federal employees in the 
States were terminated and 
in most cases continued 
their work as part of the 
State organization (Peirce 
and Stahl 1964). 
In the early years of the 
Weeks law, Federal funds 
were not transferred to the 
States. They were expended 
in the States to employ people 
for fire prevention and 
detection. Emphasis was 
given to lookouts in towers 
and on ground patrol to 
encourage the States to 
develop a more permanent 
detection system. These 
Federal employees worked 
under the supervision of the 
State Forester or other official 
as part of the State fire 
organization. The cooperative 
fire-control authority of the 
Weeks law was replaced by 
section 2 of the 
Clarke-McNary Act in 1924 
(Peirce and Stahl 1964). 
