302 



ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



79,923 acres ; the total approved price was $347,767.98, and the aver- 

 age price per acre $4.35. This average, while $1.05 above that of the 

 preceding year, is below the average of the total purchases to date 

 and is a low value for the desirable properties involved. 



While the approved purchases reflected the current progress of the 

 work, the actual acquisition of land is not accomplished until trans- 

 fers of title to the Government have been perfected. The lands 

 actually acquired during the year aggregated 142,953.43 acres and 

 cost $652,119.88, or an average of $4.56 per acre. By States they 

 were distributed as shown in the following table : 



Acreage of timberland acquired in fiscal year 1923 and total acquired to July 1, 



1923, by States. 



state. 



Alabama , 



Arkansas , 



Georgia 



Maine 



New Hampshire 

 Nort hCarolina.. 

 South Carolina. . 



Tennessee 



Virginia 



West Virginia- .. 



Total 



Acreage ac- 

 quired in 

 fiscal vear 

 1923. 



15, 568. 01 



12,3(57.37 



3, 495. 10 



91.53 



719. 73 



17, 655. 79 



104. 15 



959. 04 



62, 338. 54 



29, 653. 17 



Average cost 

 per acre. 



142,953.43 



$4.91 

 3.10 

 6.17 

 6.00 

 6.69 

 6.97 

 5.25 

 4.72 

 4.85 

 2.68 



Total acreage 

 acquired to 

 July 1, 1923. 



4.56 



79, 449. 20 



53, 206. 02 

 153, 458. OS 



32,255.98 

 405,068.41 

 348,319.90 



18, 558. 41 

 241,209.79 

 431,511.82 

 132, 108. 78 



1, 895, 146. 45 



The total cost of all lands acquired has been $10,018,111.38, and 

 the average cost per acre $5.29. 



No new purchase units were established during the year, nor were 

 any material changes made in the boundaries of existing units 

 except the Allegheny, in northwestern Pennsylvania, where, with the 

 consent and approval of the State, they were enlarged to embrace an 

 additional 315,000 acres, partly rough slopes adjacent to the Alle- 

 gheny and Clarion Rivers and partly lands contiguous to the New 

 York State boundary and the Allegheny State Park. 



For several years the National Forest Reservation Commission 

 has recognized the need for larger appropriations for purchases to 

 permit a faster consolidation of existing units and also extension of 

 the work into new regions where Federal participation in forest 

 regeneration is most desirable. Of the latter, a number were 

 enumerated in the reports for the two preceding years. The most 

 imperative need for the early establishment of new purchase units is 

 (1) on mountainous watersheds in the Eastern States tributary to 

 our great river systems, and (2) in the pineries both of the Southern 

 and of the Lake States, where stream protection would be combined 

 with the meeting of peculiarly urgent public requirements for the 

 inauguration of measures to restore the forest on extensive areas 

 of denuded and idle land. Public acquisition and reforestation of 

 portions of these pine lands is important, not merely to bring about 

 the reclamation to timber growth of the areas actually taken over^ 

 but also to provide practical demonstrations of what can be done in 

 the solution of what are already large regional problems, of national 

 importance and of growing magnitude. 



