52 Forestry Quarterly 



and report. The result of their efforts was a fixed policy, viz., 

 that the State should hold this land, and that there should be 

 a competent body to administer the same. In 1884 a Forest 

 Commission was established. 



The timber speculators, having been stopped by this law 

 which prohibited the further sale of land, then through divers 

 means would make application to the Comptroller for cancellation 

 of the State's tax deed or apply for redemption, and a few hun- 

 dred thousand acres of the State's lands were lost in this way. 

 These applications were usually based upon very flimsy techni- 

 calities. One of the most common ones was that the assessment 

 roll of a town upon which the tax levy was based was verified on 

 some other day in August than the third Tuesday prescribed by 

 the statute. 



The next step to defeat the retention of the lands was ques- 

 tioning the validity of the tax titles. In order to reduce this 

 trouble certain laws to "cure" technical defects in the tax sales 

 were enacted. The enactment of these laws required much effort, 

 several years' time and then finally their constitutionality was 

 questioned. It was only after the determination of numerous 

 points in these cases by the state courts and when their constitu- 

 tionality was finally determined by the United States Supreme 

 Court that the State's title to large areas was finally decided. 

 There are today numerous lesser questions of different phases 

 of the subject, which have not been decided upon by the court 

 and are being raised. 



The newly created Forest Commission found themselves sur- 

 rounded by numerous difficulties. The law transferred to their 

 jurisdiction approximately 800,000 acres of land scattered over 

 portions of sixteen forest counties. They had but five or six 

 men who knew substantially nothing as to the location of the 

 lines. There were very few maps and field notes which could 

 be found of record. The force had the greatest difficulty in 

 building up records of surveys, descriptions of property, chains 

 of title, field work in locating lines, and then after property was 

 located, they had to procure the necessary evidence to convict 

 parties of trespass. Inasmuch as trespasses were very common 

 it was difficult to secure necessary proof because there were so 

 many parties implicated. No one was willing to give any sub- 

 stantial evidence, because in many instances, the witness himself 



