5.0 



by au eminent botanist wlio, in discussing the forestry laws of several 

 States, said of Indiana that she had nothing to offer in this direction. 

 While this does represent tlie main facts in the case it does by no means 

 tell the whole stoi*y. A law passed in 1899 exempted from taxation per- 

 manent forest land containing not less than 170 trees per acre and also 

 any areas that might be planted to the same number or more, cultivated 

 a few years and protected from cattle for a stated time. A like exemption 

 could be secured by bringing land containing 100 or more trees to the same 

 standard and maintaining it as a forest. 



This law has in it much that is good, but the results of its operation 

 demonsti-ate the difficulty of accomplishing much by legislation without 

 provision for education. This law was intended to induce owners to secure 

 a compactness that would make their timber lands forests in all that this 

 term means to the forester and thus prevent the clearing of land below 

 the point where it ceased to be a forest and became a woods pasture. The 

 financial consideration was not enough to attract any veiy large number of 

 people and the farmer was not made to see the beneficial effects of the 

 forest so preserved or the possibility of their management to seeiu-e profit- 

 able returns. Further no attempt was made to direct the owner in his 

 efforts to bring his depleted forests to the standard where exemption could 

 be secured and consequently the total acreage was not increased. But 

 284 exemptions, including 5,312 acres, have been secured in the whole 

 State. 



The law passed by the last legislature seems to be a wise one in that 

 it places the forestry matters of the State in charge of a properly organized 

 board with authority to make all desirable recommendations for the regu- 

 lation of our forests. The last legislature deserves our special commenda- 

 tion in its taking the fir.st official step and establishing a board of for- 

 estry. I am certain that this boai'd will receive the hearty support and co- 

 operation of the Academy of Science and of the public spirited citizens 

 who have for many years pea'sistently urged attention to our forestry in- 

 terests and thus have opened the way for forestry legislation. To secure 

 any permanent benefits additional laws must be enacted, whenever such 

 as are suitable to our local conditions are suggested, and the campaign of 

 education inaugurated must be pushed by all friends of forestry. Had the 

 State adopted any radical legislation without the thorough study of the 

 situation within our borders it might have resulted in a misfit, since only 

 those forestry laws are really effective that are based on the exact needs 



