8o 



FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



annually paid into the State treasury, and a list of all securities- 

 on hand. Mr. Hodgdon called attention to the loss of the books 

 of the department which "are supposed to have been burnt, when 

 the ofifice of the late agent was consumed by fire in the autumn 

 of 1833." 



Mr. Hodgdon in his report commented as follows : "The 

 average price per acre, of sales for the respective years, may lead 

 to very erroneous conclusions, unless the quality is taken into 

 consideration. In the years 1830-31 and 1832, there were large 

 sales of the most valuable timber lands, whereas, sales the past 

 two years, with the exception of about 3,000 acres, have been 

 confined to land of an inferior quality." 



The following statement shows "the amount of sales each 

 year, with the average price per acre, "from the separation of 

 Maine from Massachusetts to January i, 1835, including half 

 the amount of the undivided lands. 



Grants 108 ,939 



Total number of acres conveyed 1 ,112 ,389. 



THE SPECULATION IN LANDS. 



In this same year (1835) the legislature was disturbed over 

 the speculation in the wild lands, and adopted measures which 

 were designed to promote the settlement of the public domain, 

 and to prevent the State's broad acres of tillage and timber from 

 going into the hands of combinations of speculators. In 1834 

 the sales of lands had amounted to 230,146 acres at an average 

 prive of $ .46 an acre. Lands were passing rapidly from one 

 owner to another and from speculation in the lands many for- 

 tunes were accumulated. As one writer of the town graphically 



