to the people in the public ownership of a large reserve supply. In the administration of the timber, local requirements are first provided for; sales are not made for shipment elsewhere unless there is more than will be needed for local use and development. Small operators are encouraged in every way in fact, more than 90 per cent. of the sales are to small men. Large sales are made where the timber is remote and heavy investments are necessary in building railroads or in other expensive improvements. In such cases adequate provisions are made to prevent monopoly. Speculation in, and monopoly of, public timber are prevented and the sales are made in a way to promote competitive conditions.

A time will come later on when the presence of the public timber will be of enormous importance in preventing the effect of private monopoly. At present there is a great deal of private timber being cut by a great many private operators. When this is largely cut and the bulk of the private timber remains in the hands of a small number of timber holders, competition will not exist to the degree to which it exists to-day. It is then that the public timber will serve a great use in regulating prices. Twenty-two private holders now own 450 billion feet, or about three fourths as much as the Government owns. Let the public take ample warning not to lose control of its timber asset, nor to permit its destruction by fire.

The third great task of the Service is to encourage the settlement and building up of the country. The land which is to be held permanently in the National Forests is that chiefly valuable for growing trees and that required to protect the sources of water supply. Agricultural lands are available for settlement and pass to private ownership. Settlers are wanted in the forests not only to help build up the local communities and states, but also to promote the development of the forests themselves. Settlers are needed to help protect the forests from fire. Every strip of cleared land is a fire line; every ranch is a vantage-point for fire-fighting; every rancher can be made a forest protector. There is not a great deal of agricultural land in the forests because they are located in the high, rough mountains. But here and there a possible mountain farm or group of farms can be located. The forests are being classified very rapidly, so that in a short time all the agricultural land not covered by heavy timber will be available for use. All this land goes

to the home-seeker free, and he has only to comply with the legal requirements of residence and cultivation to secure title to it.

There is some agricultural land in the National Forests which is covered with dense and very valuable stands of timber. On some of it there is as much as 18 or 20 million feet for a single tract of 160 acres, which is the maximum area allowed to a homesteader. History has shown that such lands are not settled upon when they are given to the homesteader. The timber stake is too large. The homesteader sells to a lumber company and moves out with his little fortune. The lumber company holds the land until the timber reaches a satisfactory value. Then the area is lumbered and the agricultural land sold for as high a price as can be secured. In this way agricultural settlement is retarded and the homeseeker without means is shut out. In the Northwestern States most of the best timbered lands were acquired by private owners before the National Forests were established. This is usually the timber at the lower elevations, on the river bottoms, and lower slopes and

benches. Much of it is being held by timber holders and is not being developed. Where agricultural lands under heavy timber occur in the National Forests the policy is to dispose of the timber by sale at an early date and then to open the land for free homesteading. Thus in the Flathead National Forest a timber sale has just been made that in four years will make available nearly 10,000 acres of agricultural land. Another sale in the Kaniksu National Forest of Idaho will enable about 6,000 acres of good land to be homesteaded. Other sales now being made will accomplish the same end, namely, to promote settlement and to reach the real homeseeker. These areas stand out in sharp contrast to the thousands of acres of heavily timbered private lands near by whose soil is as good or better and whose development for agriculture is long delayed and always will be beyond the man without means. In this case it is private ownership and not public ownership that is blocking development.

Prospecting and mining in the National Forests are carried on under the same laws as on the unreserved public domain. The partition of the National Forests among private owners and acquisition by timbermen and others would place a very serious obstacle in the way of mining development. The prospector now works freely in the forests. If he discovers a mine, he may secure title to the land under the general mining laws. He has not only the use of the timber on his location for the development of the property, but if he needs it he can secure more from the surrounding public forests under a very liberal policy of free use. In contrast to this there are countless cases where prospecting and new development have been stopped through the acquisition of large areas by private owners for timber or other purposes. One of the difficulties has been that in the past the mining laws have been manipulated to secure public lands that were valueless for mining but very valuable for other purposes. Cases are on record where the mining laws were misused to secure heavily timbered lands, valuable water-power sites, water-holes controlling many thousand acres of public range, lands