68 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF THE 



The State Forester should be a graduate of a recog- 

 nized school of forestry, and should have had experience 

 in practical forest work. To be most effective, he should 

 be absolutely free from political influence. He should be 

 assured of the position as long as he continues to fulfill 

 the duties of the office in a competent, conscientious man- 

 ner. The salary of such a, man should be at -least $2,000 

 a year, and the sum of $1,000 should be annually available 

 for his traveling and other expenses in connection with 

 the office. 



If the necessity of curtailing expenditures makes it 

 advisable to create the office of State Forester and Chief 

 Forest Firewarden at this session of the Legislature, it is 

 suggested that, so far as possible, the State Forestry Com- 

 mission attend to the duties which would devolve upon a 

 State Forester. . The Commission, through its secretary 

 should direct the forest firewardens in their work, and 

 should investigate and prosecute all violations of the for- 

 est laws. 



State Forests. — In Europe many countries have had 

 forest reserves for several hundred years. Most of them 

 were established at a time when a general famine of timber 

 was threatened through the rapid exploitation of private 

 forests. By conservative management these forests have 

 been made to yield remarkably high returns and at the 

 same time, since they are located in the mountainous 

 regions whence the larger streams originate, the effect of 

 preserving a steady stream flow, and to a large extent pre- 

 venting floods has been of incalculable benefit to the people. 

 Several States in this country have established State 

 Forests and the Federal Government controls and manages 

 conservatively nearly 200,000,000 acres of national forests 

 in the West. 



The State of Mississippi inaugurates such a policy of 

 managing certain absolute forest lands as State forests. 

 Such lands may be obtained by the retention of lands which 

 have reverted to the State for non-payment of taxes, and by 

 gifts from individuals. The chief purposes of these forests 

 would be (i) to help furnish a future supply of timber for 



