STATE NEWS 



Rhode Island 



Arrangements have been perfected to se- 

 cure the co-operation of the rural mail car- 

 riers in reporting forest fires to the wardens 

 in Rhode Island. Several towns have just 

 appointed committees and appropriated 

 money for the establishment of fire lookout 

 stations. Over 160,000 trees, representing 

 about 75 species, have been planted this 

 year in Warwick, Cranston, East Green- 

 wich and Pawtucket. A survey of the 

 natural resources of the State is in prog- 

 ress by Professor C. W. Brown, under the 

 general direction of the State Conservation 

 Commission, of which the Commissioner of 

 Forestry is a member. 



In the town of Glocester a gigantic seed- 

 ling chestnut of great age was felled, when 

 out jumped a menagerie including a rac- 

 coon, gray squirrel, flying squirrel, screech 

 owl and insects. 



Maine 



There is a movement on foot to reorgan- 

 ize and revive the Maine Forestry Associa- 

 tion, which has been practically defunct for 

 the past four or five years. It is the inten- 

 tion to have this organization take an 

 active part in having the present aopropri- 

 ation for forestry in Maine increased by 

 the next Legislature, so as to put the work 

 on a more substantial basis. 



Pennsylvania 



Aside from the general reserve and de- 

 partment work, there is nothing of special 

 importance taking place in the forestry 

 work in Pennsylvania at the present time. 

 The department has under contract and 

 will have turned over to the State in a 

 month or so enough land to bring the re- 

 serve area to the million-acre mark. 



Recently a number of small forest fires 

 have occurred within the State, and it is 

 very likely, now that hunting season has 

 opened, that we may expect quite a few 

 fires. With our protection of reserves we 

 have reason to expect that these fires will 

 not reach large size, and with the interest 

 which sportsmen themselves are taking, and 

 with the assistance of the fire wardens all 

 over the State, as well as the boy scouts, 

 there is no reason why fires outside of the 

 reserves should reach large size. Thus far 

 the State has been comparatively free of 

 any serious fires this year. 



Kentucky 



Kentucky joins the front ranks of the 

 States interested in the Forestry move- 



810 



ments. A movement which has been under 

 way for the last ten years in Kentucky for 

 the establishment of a forest policy within 

 the State was crystallized into Law at a 

 meeting of the Legislature during the win- 

 ter 1910 and 1911, when a State Board of 

 Forestry and the office of a State Forester 

 were created. The Law which was enacted 

 is a very far-reaching and intelligent law, 

 and credit for this must be given to the 

 Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs. 



Governor James B. McCreary has inter- 

 ested himself very extensively in this 

 movement for the creation of the State 

 Board of Forestry, and also for other 

 progressive conservation measures which 

 were enacted in the Law last winter. In ac- 

 cordance with this law, a State Board of 

 Forestry was appointed by the Governor, and 

 at a meeting in the latter part of August, a 

 State Forester was appointed. This appointee 

 was Mr. J. E. Barton, who has been con- 

 nected with the U. S- Forest Service for the 

 last seven years and who for the last four 

 years has been Supervisor of the Pend 

 Oreille National Forest in Northern Idaho. 

 Mr. Barton took charge of the work on the 

 first of September, and the work of organ- 

 ization under the law is going steadily for- 

 ward. The people of Kentucky are mani- 

 festing a deep interest in the forest move- 

 ment within their State, and it is expected 

 within a comparativly short time that forest 

 reserves will be created as demonstrations 

 of forestry as a business and a science, and 

 that nurseries will be furnished to provide 

 stock for planting on the forest reserves and 

 for the people of the State. One nursery 

 will be stafted on the State Fair grounds at 

 Louisville. 



As an evidence of the interest of the 

 people of the Commonwealth in forestry was 

 the enthusiasm shown in connection with the 

 planting of the Arboretum on November 13, 

 on the grounds back of the State Capitol at 

 Frankfort, Ky., which is the first arboretum- 

 on public grounds to be established in the 

 United States. Eventually each county will 

 be represented by a tree. Arbor Day was 

 celebrated at the same time as the planting 

 of the arboretum, and a large number of the 

 State officials took an active part in the work. 



Massachusetts 



As was stated in the November number of 

 American Forestry, the Massachusetts Leg- 

 islatures of 1911 and 1912 passed a resolve 

 submitting to the people a proposed amend- 

 ment to the Constitution giving to the Gen- 

 eral Court authority to prescribe the methods 

 of taxing wild or forest lands. Through the' 

 efforts of a committee appointed by the Bos- 



