FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 45 



60 towns, respecting which there were other means of deter- 

 mining the true quantity, the account rendered in the returns of 

 1820 were, in the aggregate, about 191,000 acres deficient. 

 This deficiency has been made the basis of computing that of 

 the rest; yet, even with this aid, there is still much uncertainty, 

 and different modes of computation give somewhat different 

 results. From the method which is considered the most nearly 

 accurate, it is computed that the quantity of land contained in 

 the tracts which are now holden under the ancient grants from 

 the Council of Plymouth, and those under purchases originally 

 from the Indians, including also some smaller tracts intermixed 

 with them, and which could not easily be ascertained separately, 

 is not far from 2,481,000 acres; and the quantity alienated 

 by the Province of Massachusetts, after the charter of 1691, 

 and prior to the peace of 1783, is computed to be about 1,304,500 

 acres, making, in the whole quantity alienated before the terri- 

 tory came fully into the possession of the Commonwealth, 

 3,785,000 acres. Other modes of estimating the quantity make 

 it about 130,000 acres less, and some make it rather more; but 

 the former is thought to be nearest the truth. 



LATER SALES AND GRANTS. 



The foregoing account, though comparatively of less moment 

 at the present day, yet it is thought will not be uninteresting nor 

 improper as introductory to a more specific and detailed account 

 of the sales and grants which have been since made, and which 

 form part of a system or systems in the political economy of 

 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and more recently, of 

 the State of Maine, respecting whi-ch their citizens have, at 

 times, felt a strong interest, and the results of which may have 

 had, and may still have, important relations to their fiscal con- 

 cerns, and to the general wealth and resources of the State. 



As the termination of the long and arduous struggle for the 

 independence of the nation, Massachusetts found herself a 

 sovereign state, it is true ; possessing in common with the other 

 states, her proportion of materials for a great and powerful 

 empire ; but at that time, exhausted by the efforts and suffer- 

 ings of the war — her people borne down with the weight of 

 taxes — her treasury empty — her credit that of a bankrupt — her 



