Along with the timber on the National Forests, there is a great deal of pasture land, used at present by some 7,280,000 sheep and goats, and 1,725,000 cattle and horses every year, in addi tion to their natural increase. Local settlers and stockmen have the first right to the use of the range, and every man who grazes stock on the forests under permit is allotted a cer tain area for the grazing season. In this wa., unfair competition between the big man and the little man, which in the old days worked so much harm, is done away with. A good supply of. forage year after year is ensured not allowing the land .to be overcrowded stock Under regulation the range is improve , instead of being overgrazed and denuded, as has been the case with many of the outside public lands.
Mineral deposits within National Forests are open to development exactly as on unreserved public land. The only restriction is that min ing claims must be bona-fide ones and not taken up for the purpose of acquiring valuable timber, or a town or power site, or to monopo lize the water supply on stock ranges. Pros pectors may obtain a certain amount of National Forest timber free of charge to be used in de veloping their claims. More than 500 mineral claims were patented within the National For ests during the fiscal year 1915.
Along the streams within the National For ests are many sites suitable for power develop ment. These are open to occupancy for such purposes and have the advantage of being on streams whose headwaters are protected. The government does not permit the monopolization of power in region pr allow power sites to be held without prompt development. Per mits for power development on the National Forests usually run for a term of 50 years, and may be renewed at their expiration upon com pliance with regulations then existing. Such permits, while granting liberal terms to ap plicants, contain ample provision for the pro tection of public interests.
• The total receipts from the National Forests on account of timber sales, grazing fees, and special uses, during the fiscal years 1912, 1913, 1914, and 1915, were as follows: 1912, $2,157, 356.57; 1913,V,391,920.85; 1914, $2,437,710.21; 1915, $2,481,46g.35.
It could not be expected, of course, that rugged, inaccessible mountain lands, such as constitute by far the greater part of the Na tional Forests, would soon yield a revenue to the government over and above the cost of administration. Many 1pf the forests are meant to supply the country's future needs, while others are chiefly valuable for watershed pro tection, which, though of the greatest import ance to the people and industries of the coun try, does not yield the government a return in dollars and cents. In the case of almost every
.forest, moreover, a great deal of money must be spent for roads, trails, bridges, and telephone lines before the resources can be used. Never theless, 44 of the National Forests paid their local operating costs in 1914. Land more valu able for agriculture than for timber growing is excluded from the National Forests, so far as is possible, when the boundaries are drawn. Small tracts of land which cannot be thus excluded are opened to settlement under the Forest Homestead Act of 11 June 1906. Taken as a whole, however, the proportion of land within the forests more valuable for agriculture than for growing timber or other purposes is trifling. The greater part of the really valu able agricultural land within the forests has already been taken up, and most of what there is left has a severe climate and lies at high altitudes, often remote from roads, schools, villages, and markets. Therefore the chances offered the prospective settler in the immediate vicinity of the forests are far better than in the forests themselves.
Government Investigative and tive administering the National Forest, the Forest Service conducts a pumber of special investigations relating to the growth and management of foreits and their utiliza tion. It studies the characteristics and growth requirements of the principal tree species of the United States, in order to determine how different types of forests should be handled, and also the best methods of forest planting, both for the National Forests and for other parts of the country. At experiment stations maintained in connection with the National For ests, it investigates the scientific problems underlying the management of forests, and the relation of forests to streamflow and climate. It co-operates with the States in studying their forest conditions, with the object of developing forest policies adapted to their needs, and with private owners by advice concerning the best methods of managing and protecting their forest holdings. It also co-operates with States, under the terms of section 2 of the Weeks Law, in protecting from fire the forest cover on the watersheds of navigable streams.