80 



men and means, and unhampered by any other consideration than the 

 immediate business in hand. No doubt there already exists a large 

 amount of data in each of the states, gathered in the past by agricultural 

 geological, or topographic surveys, and easily adapted to the reeds of the 

 new effort. The land which is agricultural will readily separate from that 

 which is forest. It is with the areas which lie between where the greatest 

 doubt arises. But a final disposal of the middle class lands need not im- 

 mediately be made. Set aside by purchase or other means, the land deter- 

 mined to be forest. Begin a careful system of administration, protection, 

 and development, guided by the principles of scientific and practical for- 

 estry, and within a reasonable time it will be apparent whether any state 

 has too little forest land for its present and immediate future needs. Upon 

 this determination it may rest the necessity of reachng out for the middle 

 lands and forcing them into the class of absolute forest 



Among all the lands which may be set aside, widely varying conditions 

 will be met. There will be large areas and small areas, cleared and cul- 

 tivated lands of good quality surrounded by forest, drainage conditions 

 favorable or unfavorable, valuable mineral deposits which have been sold 

 outright or for the removal of which leases may be outstanding. Timber 

 cover may be adequate, scanty, or none, values may be low and prices high, 

 and titles clouded or uncertain. 



Should it become necessary so to increase the forested area that some 

 of the lands we have called middle must be brought in, this might be accom- 

 plished by a system looking to the establishment of ratable areas of farm 

 woods. Upon many farms now not furnished with a tract of woods, there 

 will be quarter and half acres, up to ten or more acres, where pasturage 

 might be temporarily discontinued and a woody growth started. Existing 

 farm woods may be strengthened, and, in the aggregate, a large area thus 

 added to the woodlands of the state. At all events without state action, 

 every farm should have a piece of woodland for domestic needs ; and while 

 it might be difficult to persuade a farm owner to plant a highly productive 

 acre with red oak or tulip poplar, yet considerations of state policy accom- 

 panied by state action may make it necessary to require that it be done. 



It is more than probable that the foregoing may be found as conditions, 

 modified, of course, in practically all our states, and must be considered in 

 every purchase. They are certainly true for Pennsylvania and constantly 

 occur in the experience of the writer. 



The history of the origin of our land titles shows a wide variance. The 

 titles to land in the three states here met in conference are derived through 

 an act of the Continental Congress, the Ordinance of 1787, preceded by 

 grants to the United States of various state claims ; while those for Penn- 

 sylvania are through the English grant to William Penn in 1682, the 

 various treaties with the Indians and conveyances from tribal chiefs the 

 will of William Penn, who died in 1718, and the Divesting Act of the Penn- 

 sylvania Legislature of 1779, by which, in consideration of 130,000, 

 accepted by the Penn heirs, the title of the heirs to the whole of what is 

 now that state, became vested in the commonwealth. 



In proposing a form of government for his colony, Penn outlined "Cer- 

 tain Conditions or Concessions" and in Article XVIII thereof he states: 



