PROGRESS OF FORESTRY IN THIS COUNTRY. 845 
PROGRESS OF FORESTRY IN THIS COUNTRY. 
GEN. C. C. ANDREWS, CHIEF FOREST FIRE WARDEN, MINNESOTA. 
In New Jersey the annual report of the state geologist for 1898 con- 
tains over a hundred pages that are devoted to the subject of forestry, com- 
prising, among other papers, a valuable “study of forest fires and wood 
productions in southern New Jersey,’ by Mr. Gifford Pinchot, and very 
richly illustrated. This is, probably, one of the most valuable papers in re- 
gard to forest fires that has been published in this country. Mr. Pinchot 
makes the striking remark that “there is no doubt that forest fires en- 
courage a spirit of lawlessness and a disregard of property rights.” The 
state geologist of New Jersey remarks that “the question of forest protection 
in New Jersey is really included in the greater problem of the state’s water- 
supply and its conservation.” He is of the opinion that the forested regions 
in the highlands should be reserved and held in forest to maintain water 
supply. “Their value,’ he says, “as great gathering grounds for the un- 
failing supply of pure water to the many sea shore towns and settlements 
and the cities in the valley of the Delaware is such as to make the reserva- 
tion of these tracts for this use a question of public importance.” The in- 
vestigation of the forested lands of New Jersey by the state geologist are 
still in progress, under a law passed in 1894. 
Under the title of ““Timber Trees and Forests of North Carolina,” the 
geological survey of that state has published an octavo volume of 227 pages, 
handsomely illustrated and comprising a report on the timber trees of North 
Carolina, by Mr. Gifford Pinchot, and a report on the forests and forest 
conditions in North Carolina, by Mr. W. W. Ashe. Among other illus- 
trations there are many small but neat maps, showing the areas in which 
the different sorts of trees are found and the degrees of abundance of each 
sort. This report serves as a model for other states to copy and reflects, in- 
deed, great honor upon the state. The work being done on the princely do- 
main of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, at Biltmore, North Carolina, is a bea- 
con light in the forestry movement. 
Last year the forestry commission of the state of Wisconsin made a 
valuable report to the legislature accompanied by a bill “to establish a 
system of state forests and provide for the management of the same.” The 
bill, though discussed in the legislature, was not enacted, but probably will 
come up at the next session. The arguments in the report fully sustained 
these conclusions, namely, that “the establishment of a system of state 
forests is a necessity, not only for the protection of the climate and water 
flow of the state, but for the purpose of providing a sufficient supply of raw 
material to the various lumber and wood industries of the state,’—that the 
momey expended to establish the system “will, after a reasonable time, return 
into the state treasury, and the system, once fairly established, will yield a 
large annual income, that will, to a proportionate extent, do away with the 
necessity of taxation.” 
The legislature of Michigan, at its last session, passed an important 
act creating a forestry commission of three members, charged with a 
thorough inquiry into the forest resources of the state, the injury being 
done by forest fires, etc., and to report by bill or bills to the legislature 
which will meet in 1901. On its recommendation the state land office is to 
withdraw from sale two hundred thousand acres of land belonging to the 
