346 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
state. The commission is authorized to receive, by deed to the state, from 
the owners, any tracts of land which, in his judgment, may be suitable as 
forest reserves. 
The report on the trees and shrubs of Massachusetts, made fifty-three 
years ago by George B. Emerson, one of the school teachers of that state, 
was one of the important early contributions to the forest literature of this 
country. Massachusetts still keeps up the good work. Her wood land 
is worth half a million dollars more than it was thirty years ago. She has 
an influential Forestry Association, with 239 annual members, eighteen life 
members and five patrons, of whom several have contributed to its permanent 
fund over a thousand dollars each. A law in that state requires that each 
town shall annually elect a tree warden, who has sole charge of and is 
directly responsible for the roadside trees and shrubbery. There are good 
prospects that a stringent fire warden system will soon be created. A cam- 
paign of illustrated forestry lectures is now in progress, and various com- 
mittees are studying different matters pertaining to fcrestry. 
The forestry commissions of Maine and New Hampshire are doing 
much to educate public sentiment on this important question. 
It is in the Keystone State (Pennsylvania) where women have been es- 
pecially active in influencing public sentiment on the forestry question, and, 
as a consequence, we there see the cause holding its onward course. This 
is well shown by a law passed the 28th of April, this year (1899), which 
authorizes the commissioner of forestry to purchase all such unoccupied 
non-agricultural land as he deems expedient, for the purpose of creating a 
forestry reserve, and at a price not exceeding $5 per acre; and the auditor 
general is required to draw his warrant on the state treasurer to pay the 
grantees. 
I think we are all willing that the Empire State of New York should 
still take the lead in forestry. She has the most efficient staff of any state 
in the Union, and is expending more money in the work than all the other 
states combined. The present year her legislature appropriated $300,000 
for continuing the acquisition of land in the Adirondacks by the Forest 
Preserve Board, and $50,000 to extend forest preserves in the Catskills, in 
the counties of Delaware, Green, Sullivan and Ulster. In all, the legislature of 
New York, within about a couple of years, appropriated $1,800,000 to buy land 
for park and forestry purposes in the Adirondacks. About one million 
acres are held for purposes of recreation by clubs and individuals, and still 
another million acres are owned by private parties for ordinary purposes. 
The Catskills, having grander scenery and being much nearer the great 
metropolis, a movement is on foot to increase the state’s holdings in that 
beautiful region. An excursion ticket from the city of New York to the 
Catskills by railway, costs only $1.75, and it is, therefore, a great health and 
summer resort for the masses. There are many excellent hotels and good 
roads in both important regions. The State College of Forestry, connected 
with Cornell University, is having good success, and a part of its endow- 
ment is a demonstration forest of 30,000 acres in the Adirondack park, 
and which was purchased at the expense of $165,000. Such facts speak for 
themselves. 
With reference to our own state the facts are in some respects trite. 
Minnesota has the oldest forestry association of any in the country; and 
although the state has expended nothing for planting trees in forest regions, 
