No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 377 



that the said land may immediately become covered with young 

 forest growth, and does so with the approval of the commission, 

 then such surface land shall remain in the said class, established by 

 section one of this act; otherwise, the commission shall notify the 

 county commissioners that the said land is not being maintained in 

 accordance with the written agreement of the owner and the instruc- 

 tions of the commission, in which event the county commissioners 

 shall immediately remove said land from the class established by 

 section one of this act. All expenses attendant upon the examination 

 of the said surface land by the commission shall be paid for out of 

 the moneys appropriated for the maintenance of the Department of 

 Forestry, in like manner as other expenses for maintenance of said 

 department are now paid. 



Section 6. The owner of the said auxiliary forest reserves shall, 

 at all times, have the right to remove therefrom trees, or portions of 

 trees, which may be killed by fire, thrown or broken by the wind, or 

 injured by other natural causes; and shall, under the direction of 

 the commission, be privileged to make necessary thinnings or re- 

 moval of undesirable species of trees, in order to improve the condi- 

 tion of the remaining trees ; and, under the same direction, may be 

 privileged to remove therefrom such timber, from time to time, as 

 may be necessary and essential for use upon the neighboring cleared 

 lands of the said owner, for general farm purposes. 



Section 7. Any tract of land while remaining in the class of aux- 

 iliary forest reserves as above provided, may, nevertheless, be sold 

 or incumbered by or through the owner thereof, but no sale or in- 

 cumberance, whether voluntary by the owner or involuntary under 

 any statutory or judicial proceeding whatsoever, whether of any 

 State or of the United States, shall effect a discharge of any obli- 

 gation imposed under this act, and said land shall be removed from 

 said class only in accordance with the provisions hereof. 



ISection 8. That all acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith 

 be and the same are hereby repealed. 



, Approa^d — The 5th day of June, A. D. 1913. 



These Acts relate more especially to tracts of considerable extent, 

 such as the hills mentioned above, from which, as a rule, all valuable 

 kinds of timber have been removed, and which, in many instances, 

 are decreasing in value from lack of care, which adoption of the 

 Forest Acts would insure them. 



The special form of re-planting, for which I ask your approval and 

 suggestions as to how a movement can be urged forward, is the plant- 

 ing of nut trees, either hickory or walnut, on lands adapted to them, 

 of white oak and ash on stream borders, and of red and rock oak, 

 especially the latter, on the rocky hill-fields of many, indeed, most 

 portions of our State. Fine examples of the rapidity of walnut 

 growth can be seen on the Fox Estate, Clarion county ; along Penn's 

 Creek, near Glen Iron, Union county; of ash, growths of four feet 

 per annum have been noted at Asoph, Tioga county. The growth of 

 hickory is slow everywhere, but because it is slow we should plant 

 it all the sooner. Red and white oak grow very rapidly in some 

 localities, and rock oak on the dry soil of steep hills in Adams county 

 grows like a weed in height. I am indebted to the Hon. S. B. Elliott 



