STATK OWNERSHIP OF FOREST LANDS 



955 



the purchase of 159,004 acres, to its present area of 342,910 acres. The 

 average cost of the land purchased has been $3.45 per acre. The land 

 is partly timbered and partly cut-over. The forest reserve is now 

 under the State Conservation Commission, which has charge also of 

 the State parks. Money derived from the sale of timber is credited to 

 a forest reserve fund, which is used for improvements on the reserve 

 or for the purchase of additional land. Land within the reserve not 

 suitable for forest purposes may be sold, and a total of 74,769 acres of 

 agricultural land had been sold through this provision up to January i, 

 1913, and 88,822 acres had been excluded, so as to be sold. 



Minnesota has three reserves, amounting roughly to 43,000 acres. 

 Twenty-two thousand acres of this were secured as early as 1892 as a 

 gift from the United States. This early gift, known as Itasca State 

 Park, is reserved as a natural park, and cutting only of dead and in- 

 jured timber is allowed. In 1904 the United States gave the State for 

 forestry purposes a 20,000-acre tract, now known as the Burntside 

 State Forest. There are no restrictions specified as to the use of this 

 land, and practical measures of forestry are carried on under the super- 

 vision of the State forester. The State has purchased small areas of 

 private land, amounting to a total of 3,667 acres, within the tracts pre- 

 sented by the Government, in order to secure complete control over the 

 reserves. The Pillsbury State Forest, of 1,000 acres, was presented to 

 Minnesota by the estate of the late Governor Pillsbury. 



South Dakota in 1912 entered into an agreement with the Federal 

 Government whereby the State is to secure a compact body of 60,143 

 acres of timbered land in exchange for educational grants owned by 

 the State. These educational grants, being in isolated sections of a 

 square mile each, two in each township, had been very difficult to ad- 

 minister economically. The transaction is not yet completed, although 

 the State has assumed control of a portion of the area. 



Colorado, under special act of Congress in 1910, purchased 1,600 

 acres of timber land from the Federal Government at $2.25 per acre. 

 It is used for purposes of experiment and demonstration in forestry by 

 the State Agricultural College, where the State forester is professor of 

 forestry. 



California has one reserve of approximately 8,300 acres, known as 

 the California Redwood Park. Of this, 2,500 acres were acquired in 

 1901 by purchase at a cost of $100 per acre. This purchased area has 

 an average stand per acre of 70 thousand feet board measure of red- 

 wood. One thousand eight hundred acres of partially cut-over areas 

 were acquired as gifts. The remainder, some 4,000 acres, has been 



