I'RELIAIINARY REPORT OF SOME FOREST EXPERIMENTS 

 IN PENNSYLVANIA^ 



By J. S. Illick 

 Acting Director, Pennsylvania State Forest Academy 



A few private owners of forest land in Pennsylvania began manag- 

 ing their properties with care and forethought at an early date. The 

 real advent of rational forest management, however, did not take place 

 until after the State became the owner of forest land. In 1897 the 

 legislature authorized the purchase of forest land by the State for the 

 purpose of establishing Forest Reserves, now known as State Forests. 

 Since then each successive legislature has appropriated money for the 

 acquisition of additional forest land. To date (January i, 1919) 

 1,032,233 acres have been purchased at a total cost of $2,350,033.97, 

 which represents an average purchasing price of $2.28 per acre. 



The following tabulation gives the total forest area owned by the 

 State at the beginning of each year since 1900, and shows how the 

 creation of State forests and the employment of foresters and forest 

 rangers progressed with the acquisition of the land: 



Date 

 (January i) 



Total area of 



State-owned 



land, acres 



Number of Number of 



State I Number of forest 



forests I foresters rangers 



1900., 

 I9OI.. 



igo2., 



1903- ■ 

 1904., 

 1905. 

 1906. 

 1907., 

 1908. 

 1909. 

 1910. 

 1911. 

 1912. 

 1913- 

 1914. 

 1915- 

 1916. 

 1917. 

 1918. 

 1919. 



78,131 



95,141 

 139,537 

 314,599 

 402,584 



549.565 

 636,190 

 701,297 



752.49^ 

 827,723 

 916,440 



933,115 



966,229 



982,253 



994,029 



1,001,227 



1,004,866 



1.012,180 



1,017.773 

 1,032,233 



o 







I 

 I 

 I 

 I 

 I 



2 



9 

 15 

 29 



Z7 

 39 

 46 



49 

 51 



52 



53 



12 

 17 

 33 

 40 



44 

 54 

 56 

 65 

 66 

 70 

 43 

 35a 



6 

 12 



31 

 26 

 36 

 49 

 56 

 80 

 88 

 90 

 103 

 107 

 90 

 89 

 84 

 77 

 81 



91 



* Delivered before the meeting of the Society of American Foresters, at Balti- 

 more, Md., December 27, 1918. 



a One-half of foresters in military service. 



297 



