446 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
serious objection is that in nine of these upper counties, having an 
area of over 800 towaships, we have but seventy townships organized 
into towns having a board of supervisors; so that in this, by far 
the larger portion of the territory under consideration, we have no 
officers to act asinspectors, and a system of appointing such officers 
would have to be devised; and our method of management would 
not be uniform and thus somewhat confusing. 
It would seem to me that the wisest course and the one that would 
best secure the endorsement of the legislature would be to have the 
appropriation for the supervision of state lands now controlled by 
the efficient state land commissions largely increased—made amply 
sufficient to multiply three or four times the number of examiners 
orinspectors. Ifneed be, have one chief inspector, who should not 
be confined to any district, but travel at will over all our forests; 
who should be a man competent to advise in all matters of interestin 
forestry , who should examine the work of inspection done by the 
local examiners and take notes of all trespassing that shall come 
under his observation, not with a view of estimating except in a 
general way the amount of trespass committed, but for comparing 
his observations with the reports returned by his subordinates. He 
will thus be able to keepa check upon them and prevent collusion 
between them and the trespassers and see that no guilty man 
escapes. He might have among his duties the care of seeing that 
the attention of grand juries was called to all reported cases of 
timber stealing; and thus, from the fact that these juries would 
know that he had full knowledge of all the evidence in the case, 
might be more likely to return indictments in cases that 
now are never called to their attention. 
When we shall have had laws enacted and begin the reforestation 
of our cut-over lands, this officer could superintend the work, giving 
the plan of planting and deciding upon the kinds of trees to be 
planted. 
The state auditor reports that the three cruisers employed by him 
(with some additional help), during the twenty months under his 
administration, have examined 800 sections. Recalling to mind our 
statements of the landscontrolled by the state and to be inspected, 
we will notice that this is less than one-sixth of the area given to 
be inspected. The auditor adds his comment upon the work done 
that this last year for the first time have the cruisers of the Land 
Department been enabled to extend their examination as far north 
as the international boundary line. 
Thus we may readily see that the force at the disposal of the 
commission, if more than quadrupled, would not, at the same rate 
of doing the work that his present official corps have done the work, 
be enabled to cover the territory in eighteen months of time. 
It would seem important and necessary that some inspection of 
every tractowned by the state should be given to that tract at 
least once each year. This certainly should be done to every tract 
lying near the place where any lumbering operations are in progress. 
As I have considered that the Minnesota plan, so-called, and the 
proposed bill drawn by your committee will embody entirely new 
