THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director.

The appropriations for the work of the United States Geological Survey for the fiscal year 1910-11 comprised items amounting to $1,477,440. The plan of operations was approved by the Secretary of the Interior and a detailed statement of the work of the several branches and divisions of the Survey is presented on later pages of this report.

SPECIAL FEATURES.

WORK ON THE PUBLIC LANDS.

The scientific investigations of the Survey have been continued along lines similar to those followed in other years and the usual amount of contributions have been made to the knowledge of geology and related subjects. Among the special features of the year's activities the work in the public-land States should be given first place. The field examination of the public lands has become an increasingly important feature in the Survey's work, yet the standard attained is so dependent on past and present scientific investigations that the credit is necessarily given to the same field organization for both the scientific and the applied results.

In the last 12 months the amount of work done, both in field investigations contributing to the classification of the public lands and in the preparation of the results of land classification, has exceeded that done by the Survey during any preceding year. The field investigations and examinations have been more extensive and more detailed and reports covering a wider range of subjects have been prepared and submitted to the Secretary's office and to the General Land Office and the Office of Indian Affairs.

An illustration of the extent to which this contribution to publicland administration depends on the accumulated results of the field work of the Survey is afforded by the land-classification reports that are based in large part on the work of the water-resources branch.

These include reports to the Secretary of the Interior made in connection with the designation of nonirrigable lands under the enlargedhomestead act and with recommendations for the withdrawal from entry of lands valuable for water-power or reservoir sites under the withdrawal act, as well as similar reports furnished the Commissioner of the General Land Office on right-of-way applications and on applications for segregations of irrigable lands under the Carey Act. The preparation of these reports requires wide and intimate knowledge of the conditions existing in the public domain, as well as engineering judgment of a high order. Definite results concerning much of this work could not have been attained had not records of the surface and underground water resources of the public domain been available-records which represent the accumulated results of work done by the Geological Survey under appropriations covering many years.

The extent to which the work performed in other years by the geologic, topographic, and water-resources branches of the Survey has been utilized to the advantage of the public can be inferred from this year's records of the land-classification board, which in publicland matters acts as the clearing house of the Survey's field service.

PUBLIC-LAND LEGISLATION.

NATURE OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY'S WORK.

The increasing share which the Geological Survey has been asked to take in the public-land administration by the Interior Department has brought many of the problems connected with the publicland laws more directly to the attention of those charged with the work of this bureau. For over 30 years, however, these problems have interested the Federal geologists, who have had exceptional opportunities for first-hand observation in nearly all the important mining districts of the country, and for almost as long a period the engineers of the Survey have been in touch with the irrigation and power developments in the public-land States. This intimate experience with both field conditions and administrative problems justifies an expression of opinion concerning the land laws, which, it is believed, will be appropriate to this administrative report. To a large extent the principles here presented and the specific provisions advocated have been expressed in memoranda submitted by the Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior during the last four years.

PROPOSED AMENDMENT OF PUBLIC-LAND LAWS.

PURPOSES AND MEANS OF AMENDMENT.

The objects to be sought by amendment of the public-land laws are, first, purposeful and economical development of resources for

which there is present demand, with retention of such control as may insure against unnecessary waste or excessive charges to the consumer, and, second, the reservation of title in the people of all resources the utilization of which is conjectural or the need of which is not immediate. The means that are essential to the attainment of these objects are, first, the classification of the public lands, second, the separation of surface and mineral rights, and third, the disposition of the lands on terms that will secure the highest use, enforce development, and protect the public interest. Legislation based on these principles will not only secure the positive benefits of immediate utilization, but will also avoid the evils of speculative holdings of lands by fictitious use or by admitted nonuse for the future enjoyment of the unearned increment or of the profits of monopolization. With actual development made a condition of possession, and with land classification and separation of estates made preliminaries of disposition, the present-day utilization by individuals or corporations and the reservation to the people for future use become at once possible without conflict of interests.

The classification of the public land is essential to the administration of not only such laws as express the principle of separation, but also of those whose purpose is to promote the highest use of the land. Land classification is first of all the determination of the best use to which each particular portion of the public domain can be put, and by the organic act of March 3, 1879, this duty was specifically imposed upon the Director of the Geological Survey. The progress now being made in this work is set forth in another part of this report. (See pp. 298–312.)

Separation of surface and mineral rights might be effected without classification of land by the automatic reservation of all mineral deposits to the United States in every patent issued as a result of nonmineral entry, selection, or purchase. Legislation of this type would possess the merit of simplicity and effectiveness, but the wellknown objection to limited patents would with considerable reason be made the basis for the contention that the Government should assume the burden of classifying its land before disposition.

The classification of the public domain is itself an outgrowth of the principle of relative worth, which early found expression in the land laws of this country, in that they provided for the reservation of mineral lands from disposition for other purposes. The present coal-land law also expresses this principle of relative worth by giving deposits of gold, silver, and copper priority over coal, and coal, in turn, preference over agricultural values. Such distinctions necessitate land classification based on adequate field examination, and with the classification data at hand the principle of relative worth can be further developed. Wherever the different values of

the land conflict the highest use should prevail, and under legislation that does not oppose the principles of economic law the highest use will prevail.

Under the withdrawal act of June 25, 1910 (Stat. L., vol. 36, p. 847), classification is made possible in advance of disposition, and disposition can be postponed to await immediate legislation. Fully to accomplish this purpose, for which it was enacted, the withdrawal act itself needs amendment in several particulars. No withdrawal is effective against location or appropriation for minerals other than coal, oil, gas, and phosphate, the apparent intent of the law being to promote the exploration and discovery of metalliferous minerals. However, this exception to the application of the withdrawal law is far too broad, in that it would include such minerals as potash or nitrates, the disposition of which is a matter of no less vital concern to the agricultural interests of the nation than is the proper utilization of the phosphate deposits. So, too, it is true that attempts are being made to claim sand and gravel as minerals excepted by the law and under such contention to secure control of power sites, even in the face of an executive withdrawal. Connected with this defect in the law is the lack of recognition therein of the principle of relative worth. There is a too evident opportunity for a gypsum entryman, notwithstanding the fact that the gypsum, by reason of poor quality or lack of transportation facilities, may be worthless commercially, to set up a claim for title to a tract of great prospective value for oil-a tract which is protected from oil entry by an oil withdrawal. Similarly, under the mineral law it is possible to seek title to the walls of a narrow canyon, withdrawn as a power site, in spite of the great discrepancy between the utterly negligible value of the building stone it contains and the strategic importance of the dam site.

SEPARATION OF SURFACE AND MINERAL RIGHTS.

The first step, both in principle and practice, in any amendment of the land laws, appears to be that of making possible by legislation the separation of surface and mineral rights whenever the two estates have values which can be separately utilized. A notable advance in public-land legislation was the passage of the acts of March 3, 1909 (Stat. L., vol. 35, p. 844), and June 22, 1910 (Stat. L., vol. 36, p. 583), which provide that patents issued thereunder grant title to the surface of the land only and thus permit its agricultural development, while at the same time the United States retains title to the underlying coal deposits. The results have been of undoubted value in permitting homestead and desert-land entries, Carey Act selections, and reclamation-act withdrawals on lands which are withdrawn or classified as coal lands or are known to be valuable for coal.

A similar separation of surface and mineral rights should be extended to all other nonmineral entries, selections, or locations, to include oil, gas, and phosphate lands as well as coal lands, the mineral rights to be reserved to the United States until they can be disposed of most beneficially to the people. For all these lands the need of legislation for the separation indicated is not academic but actual, since under each class there are already requests for surface patents.

Similar legislation applying the principle of separation is demanded in order to reserve to the Government the exclusive right to grant easements for the future development of water resources, for either power or irrigation, and at the same time to make provision for grants of surface patents for the agricultural use of the land, or of mineral patents where mining may not interfere with water-power development. During the last year the principle involved in this proposed legislation was recognized by the enactment of an item in the Indian appropriation act which provides for the issuance of limited patents on the shores of Flathead Lake, in Montana, where increased storage for power and irrigation may be at some future time found to be advantageous. A further recognition of this principle was given in the water-power bill introduced by Representative Parsons at the third session of the Sixty-first Congress (H. R. 33000), wherein provision is made for a double use of land leased for water-power utilization and for the reservation in perpetuity to the United States of all rights to future occupancy and use for water-power development on all lands designated by the President. The need of statutory authority for limited patents is most evident in regions where, because of the possibility of future power development, lands are now withdrawn which possess present value for agricultural use. Provision should be made whereby future power development will be absolutely insured when ever the value of the lands for such use would exceed their actual agricultural value.

The chief advantage of land withdrawal and classification lies in its essential relation to the principle of proper disposition of the public domain, the real purpose of public-land administration being to insure such reservation or disposal of the people's land as will result in its highest use. The question of amendment of the present laws relating to the disposition of coal, oil, gas, and phosphate deposits on the public domain is recognized as fairly before the public by the specific mention of these minerals in the withdrawal act.

LAW APPLICABLE TO COAL LANDS.

The coal-land law is unquestionably the most satisfactory of the present mineral-land laws in that it admits of the placing of an adequate valuation upon the deposits, and in the administration of this law the purpose is not only to base the appraisal price upon