53 



The organization of the fire warden force is most complete; it places 

 responsibility carefully and makes the expense of fighting fires fall largely 

 upon the counties in which it exists, and if any negligence on the part of 

 the warden is discovered the whole liurden falls on the county in which 

 he is shown to be remiss. A series of State reserves are to be established 

 in suitable localities where land can be secured from that which has come 

 to the State because of the nonpayment of taxes. The entire management 

 of these forests is placed in the hands of the commission,- and they are em- 

 powered to appoint a trained forest warden, with assistants, who will 

 have the immediate management of these lands and be responsible to 

 the commission. Appropriations are made for the worlv. and every phase 

 of it seems to be covered by carefully drawn and very comprehensive 

 legislation. While the laws are based largely on those of New York, they 

 contain a few improvements, and in some respects they might be safely 

 adopted by our own State as more applicable to our conditions. Certain 

 details of the laws in many States are very A'aluable. but the aim of our 

 State should be toward practical results and not to experiment with any 

 plan unless it has proven to l)e applicable to many cases and might be 

 effective in our own. The people must he shown the wisdom of each step 

 and this will make oiu- forestry work easy. 



A word of caution in connection with the subject of legislation may not 

 be out of place. Great care should be exercised against tlie possibility of 

 excessive exemption from taxation or the raising by tax of money to pay 

 premiums on forest plantations, else the burden will fall too heavily on 

 otu' agi'icultural regions that are not fortunately located for forests, and 

 result in a prejudice against any forestry legislation. While stieh legisla- 

 tion is a great incentive to forest attention and does stimulate a healthy 

 interest in forest matters, it must not be too liberal or continued beyond 

 a period when its educational effect is desirable, since practical forestry 

 is a profitable occupation and should stand on its own merits. True some 

 farmers have tried it and failed, so liave they tried farming and not met 

 with success, but long experience with forests under many and varied 

 conditions has demonstrated the success of the plans, and there can be no 

 question as to its outcome in our State. The problems that confront us 

 in Indiana, may be briefly stated as follows: 



1. Preservation of our forests now located on lands that are not 

 suitable for agriculture and the management of these tracts so that their 

 productiveness will be permanent. 



