to be dreaded, to report to the Secretary of the Interior and to act as superintendent, and he should be supported by sufficient details of soldiers. In or near each forest reservation a United States commissioner should be stationed to deal promptly with all cases rising from violations of forest laws or regulations, and perform the duties of a police justice under a district attorney and the United States court. The authority to make arrests should be conferred upon the forest guards. The primary object of such temporary management would not be to produce a revenue, but to protect the reserves against fire and depredation. It should be the duty of the superintendents to issue passes to persons desirous of entering or crossing them, and to keep a careful record of the names and residences of all such persons. Sheep should be wholly excluded from the reserves, and cattle should be admitted only in moderate numbers and when the property of actual settlers on adjacent lands.

Permanent forest organization.-The fundamental principle of any Government system of forest management should be the retention of the fee of forest lands, and the sale of forest products from them at reasonable prices, under regulations looking to the perpetual reproduction of the forest. While it is not desirable, perhaps, that the Government in the immediate future should enter into competition with the private owners of forest lands, it is evident that ultimately the sale of forest supplies from the Government timber lands should not only cover all expenses of Government forest management, but produce a steadily increasing income.

Upon officers charged with the administration of the Government forests will devolve the care of immensely valuable public property, its improvement under the best established scientific methods, police responsibility of exceptional delicacy, surveys, the construction of roads and engineering works for the protection of mountain slopes, and the control of numerous agents widely separated and not easily trained to habits of discipline. Many of these duties are essentially military in character, and should be regulated for the present on military principles. Wise forest management calls for technical knowledge which must be based on a liberal scientific education. The forest officers must be men of the highest personal character, who can be trusted to avoid participation in any private business connected however remotely with forest products. To secure the service of men qualified to meet these several requirements will call for liberal remuneration and permanent tenure of office.

The following permanent organization is recommended to meet these demands:

One director of forests, to have charge of a forest bureau in the Department of the Interior. He should be the president of an advisory board consisting of himself, an assistant director, and of four forest inspectors, and should have general charge of all matters relating to the forests on the public domain; he should approve all plans made by

his subordinates for the management of these forests. His staff should consist of a legal adviser well versed in the laws and regulations of the service, and of a disbursing officer to attend to the distribution of funds among the forest officers and to receive and audit their accounts. Such clerks as experience may show to be necessary should be provided.

An assistant director of forests, with authority to sign such letters, papers, and documents, and perform such other duties as may be designated by the director, to act as director in case of the absence of that officer or in case of a vacancy in the office of director. and to be a member of the advisory forest board.

Four inspectors of forests, each to have charge of a forest department and to be a member of the advisory forest board. The permanent stations of these officers should be at the most convenient localities in their departments, but they should assemble in Washington to confer with the director and with each other, and to discuss matters connected with the service. Each should have a legal adviser on his staff and as many clerks as necessary. All papers relating to his department, whether from superiors or inferiors, should pass through the office of the inspector.

The following limits are suggested for the four forest departments:

First department: To include the forest reserves comprised in California and Nevada. At present there are six such reserves, aggregating 6,867,200 acres.

Second department: To include the forest reserves comprised in Oregon and Washington west of the one hundred and twentieth meridian. At present there are six such reserves, aggregating 12,671,360

acres.

Third department: To include the forest reserves comprised in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. At present there are eight such reserves, aggregating 6,141,440 acres.

Fourth department: To include the forest reserves comprised in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, and Idaho, and Washington east of the one hundred and twentieth meridian. At present there are eight such reserves, containing 9,117,440 acres.

Twenty-six head foresters, each to have charge of a forest district not too large for close personal supervision. The area of a district should vary according to locality, rarely comprising less than half a million acres or more than one and a half million acres. The district should form the unit of organization. Its chief should control his subordinates, regulate expenditures, prepare projects for and direct the execu tion of all public works, and should be responsible for the proper execution of all orders received from higher authority. Persons desiring to purchase forest products should apply to him; and if recommended by himself and approved by his forest inspector, he may make formal contracts, supervise the delivery according to the terms thereof, and duly notify the receiver at the nearest land office, or such other agent

of the Government as may be designated by competent authority to receive funds. In no case should payments be made to officers of the forest service. To the staff of each head forester should be attached a United States commissioner appointed by the judge of the United States court for that locality. This officer should hear all cases arising under violations of forest laws and regulations, and, where necessary, report them to the district attorney for prosecution in the United States court.

Twenty-six foresters to act as assistants, and in case of absence or illness of the head foresters to perform their duties. They should also disburse all Government funds and be responsible for all Government property in use under the forest organization of the district, but under the direction and subject to the approval of the head forester.

The fifty-eight officers designated should constitute a permanent forest corps, holding office for life during good behavior or efficiency, but subject to retirement at the age of 64 years; and their promotion should be by seniorty. They should be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

Under the temporary organization already suggested, officers of the Army will have had experience in forest administration, and some of the first appointments to the permanent forest corps would naturally be made from those officers who had shown special fitness for forest duty. The officers of the forest corps thus recruited from graduates of the Military Academy at West Point will have had the advantage of the military training required in the forest service and a scientific education well calculated to prepare them to profit by instruction in special forest schools in this country or in Europe. The certainty of future employment, dependent on ability and good behavior, will induce young men of good ability to seek employment in the forest service through this channel.

The disadvantage of being obliged to devote considerable time in the Academy to the study of subjects which have no immediate connection with forestry will be more than compensated for by the character of the education obtained there. There is now no other school in which the Government can train young men so cheaply and efficiently in many branches of knowledge which will be directly advantageous to them as forest officers. Provision, too, must be made for the admission into the forest corps of the graduates of other scientific schools and of universities in which special attention is given to scientific education. The graduates of West Point pass before graduation a severe Government examination. To make sure, however, of obtaining men equally well fitted for their duties from other schools and colleges these should pass a civil-service examination before they receive nominations by the President for appointment in the forest service, but no discrimination should be made against either. To provide at once technical forest education a certain number of graduates of the Mili

tary Academy who may desire to enter the forest service should be sent for two or three years to one of the great forestry schools of Europe, and when these first officers have been graduated it should be their duty to organize at some convenient place near one of the great reservations a forest school for the instruction of the forest corps and of such civilians as may desire to avail themselves of its privileges.

Provision for the promotion of deserving individuals in the lower grades of the forest corps, to fill 50 per cent of the vacancies in that of officer, should also be made, not only as a reward of merit, but as an additional inducement for educated young men to enter this branch of the public service.

The following organization is recommended for the subordinate grades in the forest service:

Two hundred rangers, to serve under the orders of head foresters. The rangers should have authority to make arrests for violations of forest laws and regulations, and should thus be constituted a sort of national police. They should supervise all work undertaken on the reserves; should see that contracts for forest products are executed according to the terms agreed upon, and in general should act as assistants in the regulation of local affairs. Upon entering the service they should sign articles to serve for a period of five years, and they should be selected under civil-service rules by the head forester, under whom they are to act. Being eligible for promotion in the grades of forester under the conditions above indicated, it is believed that these positions will be sought by young men desirous of entering the service.

Assistant rangers, in such numbers as may be found necessary in the different districts after experience has made known the requirements of the service. They should be employed during the season when the reserves are frequently visited by campers and others and when fires are to be chiefly apprehended, and should be discharged when no longer needed. They should be appointed by head foresters under civil-service rules, and should have authority to make arrests for violations of forest laws and regulations. The routine manual labor of the reserves should devolve upon the assistant rangers.

The following are the rates of annual compensation suggested for forest officers, with an increase of 10 per cent for each period of five years' service: For the director, $4,500; for the assistant director, $4,000; for an inspector, $3,500; for a head forester, $2,500; for a forester, $2,000.

For the subordinate grades a monthly pay of $45 for rangers and of $35 for assistant rangers is proposed, with a gradual increase for length of service. Rations in kind, or a commutation, should also be furnished. All officers of the service on reaching the age of 64 years should be entitled to receive 50 per cent of their pay at the time of retirement, and a like inducement to faithful service should be extended to rangers after a service of thirty years.

This organization will require for salaries, including those of rangers, for each of the first five years an annual appropriation of $250,000. While the number of officers proposed is much smaller in proportion to the area of the territory to be protected, now about 40,000,000 acres, than has been found necessary in other countries, it is believed to be sufficient for the immediate wants of the service. It is probable, however, that it will have to be enlarged in the future, when increase of population in the Western States and Territories and a greater demand for forest supplies than now exists will make the protection of the reserved forest lands more difficult and will justify more elaborate methods of forest management than now appear necessary, or when now unreserved forest lands of the public domain are controlled by the officers of the forest bureau.

When it is remembered that several million dollars' worth of timber are taken every year from the public domain without the Government being able to obtain any payment for it, it would appear a wise and economical policy to spend annually a few hundred thousand dollars on an organization which would prevent such unnecessary drains on the wealth of the nation. It must be remembered also that an efficient forest administration would be able to prevent many forest fires on the public domain, and that it is not an unusual occurrence for a single fire to destroy material in a few days worth more in actual money than this forest administration would cost in years, while the loss to the country in impaired water flow through forest fires, which might be easily prevented, is incalculable. The expenditure, therefore, of $250,000 a year in furnishing means for protecting the forests on the public domain would appear to be justified by every consideration of common sense and economy.

The example, moreover, of wisely directed national forests may be expected to be a substantial benefit to the private interests of the citi zens of the United States, both as object lessons and in the opportunity they would offer for the special training of foresters. Such examples would gradually change the wasteful methods now practiced by individual owners of forest property, and in this way increase national wealth and prosperity. Your committee fully realizes that the organization of such an administrative bureau of civil officers would be a radical departure from the recognized customs of the United States. The nature and extent of the interests at stake, however, and the diffi culty, delicacy, and permanency of the duties demand an exceptionally stable service. The experience of all other countries shows that this service can be successfully performed only by highly trained and conscientious officers.

Board of forest lands.-Topographical and economic surveys upon which it would have been possible to establish scientifically the proper boundaries of the reserved lands do not exist, and their limits have been laid down roughly, with the idea that they would be modified as