118 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Fires had followed lumbering; puny fire-cherries, 

 sumac and blackberry bushes now grow in the place 

 of mighty hemlocks which once had flournished. Deso- 

 lation reigned supreme. 



Hopes for the Future 



Even while lumbering operations were in full swing, 

 the State of Pennsylvania began to buy up cut-over 

 land in Potter County. These purchases gradually 

 increased as the cutting progressed until today the State 

 ov/ns more than forty-one thousand acres in Steward- 

 son Township, including the site of the town of Cross 

 Fork. Practically all this land is chiefly valuable for 

 permanent forest production, and is being handled by 

 the state with this end in view. 



Fire protection has been assured by the building of 

 look-out towers and the clearing of land lanes, the 

 em.ployment of forest rangers. Roads have been brush- 

 ed out and ditches dug. Springs have been cleaned and 

 repaired. Telephone lines have been maintained and 

 in some places extended. Reforestration of the denud- 

 ed hill has been begun by the planting of white pine 

 and other trees. 



The State has, in short, regarded its lands as a per- 

 manent investment, and has set out to manage them in 

 a business like way. As the local residents have grad- 

 ually come to realize this fact, their original attitude 

 of at least partial hospitality has been replaced by one 

 of cordial co-operation. Their fear that public owner- 



