STATE OWNERSHIP OE FOREST LANDS 



953 



The total area of land, chiefly forested and devoted to park or for- 

 estry purposes, owned by Massachusetts is therefore about 34,897 acres. 



Connecticut has four State forests, with a total area of 2,457 acres. 

 The first land was acquired in 1902 for as low as $1.64 per acre. The 

 price to be paid was at first limited to $2.50 per acre, then $4 per acre, 

 and now $8 per acre. The purchasing and management of the State 

 forests are placed under the State forester. 



New York has two large "forest preserves," as they are called, the 

 total acreage being 1,814,550. As long ago as 1883 the State reserved 

 all land in its ownership, and the first report of the Forest Commission, 

 in 1885, stated that 715,267 acres had been reserved by the State. A 

 very large part of this area had reverted to the State for non-payment 

 of taxes, and some of it was land with which the State had never 

 parted. Fifty-four per cent of the preserves is heavily timbered, part 

 of it in virgin condition, 25 per cent is younger forest, 14 per cent is 

 waste (mountain-top or water), and 7 per cent is denuded. Several 

 thousand acres have been reforested. 



In 1894 an amendment to the State Constitution provided that the 

 forest-preserve lands should be kept forever as wild forest lands, and 

 that they should not be sold, leased, or exchanged, nor should the timber 

 upon them be sold, removed, or destroyed. There is a strong feeling 

 that this provision should be amended, so as to permit the sale of dead 

 and mature timber, since the reservation of nearly two million acres as 

 a wilderness in New York State benefits only those who have the means 

 to go to the preserves for purposes of recreation. Conservative use of 

 the resources of the preserves administered as permanent, producing 

 forests is the only policy which will make them benefit the whole State, 

 for the people need the timber and the employment which conservative 

 development would yield. 



New Jersey has seven forest reserves, with a total area of 13,699 

 acres. The first was acquired in 1905. The average cost has been 

 $3.35 per acre, the land being in the main heavily cut over or culled. 

 There has also been purchased during the past year an attractive lake, 

 comprising 566 acres, in the hilly portion of the State. 



The Palisades Interstate Park in New York and New Jersey com- 

 prises 23,000 acres, the first purchases having been made about 1901. 

 This park is not generally considered a forest reserve, but is noted be- 

 cause title is held by an interstate commission for permanent public use 

 and because forestry is practiced in the management of the extensive 

 woodlands included in it. 



Pennsylvania has 1,008.140 acres of forest reserves in 57 divisions. 



