Under date December 3, 1914, the department directed the preparation and submission of a detailed report covering the various questions which have arisen in connection with the adjustment of pending school grants. Such report was made July 27, 1915. It contains a discussion of the school grants of 13 of the public-land States; State constitutional provisions; Federal and State legislation; decisions of Federal and State courts and of the department, as well as tabulated statements showing present status of adjustment. This report, it is understood, will be printed by the department, and will, it is believed, furnish the requisite information upon which proposed remedial legislation may be presented to Congress.

During the past fiscal year 16,277.38 acres of indemnity school land selections, and 840,606.36 acres of selections under grants in quantity for specific purposes received departmental approval and the lands so selected were certified to the States making the selections.

SWAMP AND OVERFLOWED LANDS.

The grant of swamp and overflowed lands made by the acts of Congress approved March 2, 1849 (9 Stat., 352), September 28, 1850 (9 Stat., 519), and March 12, 1860 (12 Stat., 3), now sections 2479, 2480, 2481, and 2490, United States Revised Statutes, is still in process of adjustment. Some old claims have not been finally adjudicated and new claims are being constantly presented.

Up to June 30, 1915, the acreage patented as swamp and overflowed lands to the several States which were the beneficiaries of the grant reached the following totals:

In addition to this large area of public land, cash and land indemnity have been given to the same States under the provisions of the acts of March 2, 1855 (10 Stat., 634), and March 3, 1857 (11 Stat., 251), as follows:

It thus appears that upward of 64,500,000 acres of land and $2,000,000 have been given to the States named to enable them, as stated in said act of September 28, 1850, "to construct the necessary levees and drains to reclaim the swamp and overflowed lands therein," it being provided further that the proceeds of the land granted, whether from sale or direct appropriation in kind, should be applied exclusively, as far as necessary, to the purpose of reclaiming them. Has this been done and the grant thus administered in the interest of the public?

An inquiry in this direction can arrive at one conclusion only-the grant has not been so employed by the States as to secure the drainage of the great body of lands granted, and in many cases the proceeds arising from the sales of the lands were used for other purposes. Not only has the intention of the grant been thus defeated, but it has in many cases been used to secure thousands of acres of high, dry lands of great agricultural or forest value. Doubtless none of the large land grants made by Congress has more completely failed of its purpose than the swamp grants.

Sixty-five years have elapsed since this grant was first made. It is, of course, increasingly difficult to determine the character of lands at the date of the grant which are now claimed as swamp. I believe that Congress should enact legislation declaring that, after a date fixed, preferably six months after the passage of the act, no new claims to swamp and overflowed lands be received or recognized by the Land Department, and I so recommend.

Patents for 19,219.63 acres of swamp and overflowed lands and 252.32 acres of swamp indemnity lands were issued during the past year, and claims aggregating 16,639.70 acres were rejected.

NATIONAL FORESTS.

Since the issuance of the last annual report 12 national forests have been reduced under the act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat., 36), and 2 by the act of January 26, 1915 (38 Stat., 798-800), creating the Rocky Mountain National Park, in Colorado. The Pike National Forest, Colo., has been enlarged by the acts of August 24, 1914 (38 Stat., 705-706), and March 4, 1915 (38 Stat., 1194). Certain interforest transfers have been made involving three national forests, and the Zuni National Forest, Ariz. and N. Mex., has been consolidated with the Manzano National Forest. There are now 162 national forests, embracing 184,240,596 acres, of which area approximately 89 per cent is public land. The decrease in area of national forests since the beginning of the fiscal year is 1,080,606 acres.

During the fiscal year the public lands subject to disposition in 1,277,536 acres excluded from national forests in this and previous years have been restored to settlement and entry under the provisions of the act of September 30, 1913 (38 Stat., 113). Twenty-four thousand three hundred and twenty acres in New Mexico have been withdrawn pending determination as to the advisability of their inclusion in the Alamo National Forest. Areas temporarily withdrawn for forestry purposes but not needed therefor are released from withdrawal upon recommendation of the Secretary of Agriculture. Since the issuance of the last annual report 11,930 acres have been released from such withdrawal and the public lands therein subject to disposition opened to settlement and entry.

During the fiscal year 9 administrative stations, embracing 1,742 acres, and 1 right of way have been withdrawn by Executive orders under the act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat., 847), for use by the Forest Service in the administration of the national forests, and 365 withdrawals for such purpose have been revoked, covering 62,251 acres. There are now 25 rights of way for wagon roads and 2,777 administrative sites withdrawn, embracing 352,689 acres-164 sites and 20,482 acres being near, and 2,613 sites, covering 332,207 acres, in the national forests.

NATIONAL MONUMENTS.

No new national monuments were created during the fiscal year under the provisions of the act approved June 8, 1906 (34 Stat., 225). There are in all 31 national monument reservations located in the States and the Territory of Alaska-Arizona, 7; California, 6; Colorado, 2; Montana, 2; New Mexico, 5; Oregon, 1; South Dakota, 1; Utah, 3; Washington, 1; Wyoming, 2; Alaska, 1.

With few exceptions, these valuable reservations are still devoid of that administrative care and development necessary to their preser

vation and usefulness to the public. Some of them, especially the great caverns, the pictured rocks, and the prehistoric ruins, continue to suffer from a vandalism that can not be prevented until moneys are available for effective warden service and restoration, road making, and other necessary activities now impossible.

Complaints continue to come to this office which we are powerless to relieve. I therefore very earnestly renew my recommendation of past years that Congress be urged to supply a small annual appropriation which will enable this bureau to employ, at practically nominal salaries, local custodians, and to make such minimum of repairs as will at least maintain the monuments in their present condition.

For a table showing location, date of creation, and area of the national monuments, see appendix, page 79.

BIRD RESERVATIONS.

During the fiscal year three new reservations for the protection of native birds were created. Two of these, Dungeness Spit and Ediz Hook, were created January 20, 1915. Each of these reservations consists of a long arm of land extending from the north shore of the State of Washington into the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Mille Lacs Reservation, consisting of a small island situated in Mille Lacs, a body of fresh water in Minnesota, was created May 14, 1915.

Dungeness Spit and Ediz Hook are not so much breeding grounds for native birds as asylums and refuges for vast numbers of water fowl, which rest there during heavy storms and during migrating seasons. At these times they have been persecuted mercilessly by market hunters.

The Mille Lacs Reservation is the breeding ground for many hundreds of gulls and terns, as well as the resting place for large numbers of edible water fowl during the migrating season.

During the year, also, two bird reservations were reduced as follows:

Deer Flat Reservation, Idaho, created February 25, 1909, was slightly reduced in area by Executive order of March 21, 1915, one 40-acre tract in private ownership being eliminated therefrom.

The Klamath Lake Reservation, created by Executive order of August 8, 1908, was reduced by Executive order of May 14, 1915, by the elimination therefrom of tracts of land both on the east and west sides of the reservation, which were occupied in part by squatters who had located in good faith many years prior to the creation of the reservation. It was found after a careful investigation upon the ground that the lands they occupied could be eliminated without serious injury to the reservation.

For a list of bird reserves showing location, date of creation, and area, where known, see appendix, page 80.

On July 17, 1914, a bird reservation was created out of Blackbeard Island on the coast of Georgia, but this order was vacated by the Executive order of May 25, 1915, which returned the island to the custody of the Treasury Department, with the express understanding, however, that whatever disposition might thereafter be made of it the wild life, consisting of both birds and animals should be fully protected. In furtherance of this protection the State of Georgia proposes to lease the island from the Government, or otherwise through possible legislation secure control over it for the purpose of creating a State game preserve, to be administered by the State of Georgia through its State game warden or other officer authorized by law for the purpose.

Inability on the part of the Agricultural Department to properly administer this island in the interest of bird protection, because of the lack of funds for the purpose, was the chief factor considered in connection with the restoration of this island to the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department.

CONTESTS.

The contest work is of a varied character and involves many intricate questions requiring special training and experience for the proper and intelligent handling of the same. The majority of the cases numerically arise under the homestead laws, the charges against the entryman being usually a failure to comply with one or all of the requirements of the law as to residence, cultivation, and improvements.

Desert-land cases are next in point of number; some involving only the question of the character of the land, but most of them also being based upon charges of noncompliance with law or insufficient water supply. The fact that desert-land entries are adjudicable by smallest legal subdivisions and may stand or fall in part according as part of the land is or is not reclaimed, makes many of these cases consume a great deal of time in their adjudication, in order to analyze the testimony and apply it understandingly to the various subdivisions of the particular entry.

Under the timber-and-stone laws there are presented questions of considerable difficulty in determining the character of the lands applied for, as well as the good or bad faith of the applicants.

Questions involving controversies between private claimants and States over lands alleged to be swamp in character have proved a prolific source of litigation the past year, and call for a special study and familiarity with the peculiar questions presented under the terms of the swamp-land grant. Cases are now beginning to come into the