Excerpt from A National Plan for American Forestry, Vol. 2 of 2: Letter From the Secretary of Agriculture Transmitting in Response to S. Res; 175 (Seventy-Second Congress); The Report of the Forest Service of the Agricultural Department on the Forest Problem of the United States The Weeks law was the first of the present-day Federal aid measures enacted by Congress which embodied the condition of equal sharing of expenditure by the States. Various forms of land grants had, of course, been made long before this. Measures had also been taken by Congress in support of State colleges of agriculture and of agricultural experiment stations. By the passage of the Weeks law a lump sum of $200,000 was made available until expended - to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate with any State or group of States, when requested to do so, in the protection from fire of the forested watersheds of navigable streams; and the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized, and on such conditions as he deems wise, to stipulate and agree with any State or group of States to cooperate in the organization and maintenance of a system of fire protection on any private or State forest lands within such State or States and situated upon the watershed of a navigable river: Provided, That no such stipulation or agreement shall be made with any State which has not provided by law for a system of forest fire protection: Provided further, That in no case shall the amount expended in any State exceed in any fiscal year the amount appropriated by that State for the same purpose during the same fiscal year. During the fiscal year 1911, cooperation was undertaken with 11 States under this act. The number increased steadily to a total of 29 States in 1925, and meanwhile additional appropriations were made under the act. During the calendar year 1911, $36,692 Federal, $165,975 State, and $54,590 private money was expended upon the protection of approximately 60,779,000 acres of forested watersheds. In the fiscal year 1925, the last year prior to cooperation under the Clarke-McNary law, the corresponding amounts spent were $397,651 Federal and $1,844,192 State and private. Combined expenditures under the Weeks law were thus increased nearly tenfold from 1911 to 1925, and the area of forest land under cooperative protection in 1925 was three times that in 1911. The Clarke-Mcnary Law (Act of June 7, 1924; 43 Stat. 653) This act continued the Federal cooperation started with the States under the Weeks law, which was superseded in that respect. It removed the limitation of protection to forested watersheds of navigable streams, provided for cooperation through the States with private forest owners, and added the important provisions contained in sections 3, 4, and 5 - for forest taxation studies, for cooperation with the States in the production and distribution of forest planting stock for windbreaks, shelter belts, and farm wood lots, and for cooperation in farm forestry extension. The following are the provisions of sections 1, 2, and 3 of the Clarke-McNary law: That the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized and directed, in cooperation with appropriate officials of the various States or other suitable agencies, to recommend for each forest region of the United States such systems of forest fire prevention and suppression as will adequately protect the timbered and cut-over lands therein with a view to the protection of forest and water resources and the continuous production of timber on lands chiefly suitable therefor. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com