unseated, mountain land is looked upon as having greater value than 

 formerly, and the owners are paying taxes promptly. Twenty years ago, 

 in certain counties, the treasurer's biennial tax sale advertisement in the 

 local newspapers frequently covered a page. Today, in the same coun- 

 ties, it runs to less than half a column. 



Purchases on the watersheds of the principal rivers proceeded rapidly 

 in the acquisition of private holdings, but before the prescribed area of 

 forty thousand acres had been obtained upon each of the watersheds 

 named, the Department of Forestry was created by the legislature of 

 1901, and is now a constituent branch of the state government. 



The Department of Forestry consists of a Forest Commission of five 

 members, of which body the Commissioner of Forestry is one. The sub- 

 divisions at present are ten in number, each headed by a forester or special- 

 ist. Any suitable tracts of land may be purchased in any county, the test 

 being its fitness for forest culture. The price to be paid was limited at 

 first to five dollars per acre, but has since been raised to ten dollars. 

 Where conditions relating to re-foresting and betterment of stand may be 

 improved, timber may be sold. As a result of timber and mineral sales, 

 made from what for the most part is abandoned land and decrepit timber 

 left by the old-time lumbering, the department had paid into the state 

 treasury $195,789.42. 



In procuring forest land for state purposes, the first consideration is 

 that it be forest land. Occasionally small areas of cleared, or formerly 

 cleared, land, but now chiefly abandoned for farming purposes, will be 

 included. These few acres are useful for many purposes, the chief being 

 that they afford living places for forest officers. All deals and negotiations 

 are preferred to be had directly with the owners. The department employs 

 no agents to seek out lands and does not desire to deal through agents. 

 Lands have been and are now being offered in abundance. All offers must 

 be made in writing. If there is seeming suitability an examination is 

 directed and made. 



Because the state is in the market to buy land, some owners think 

 fancy prices should be paid. They even at times try to exert political 

 pressure to accomplish their end. Nothing counts with the Department of 

 Forestry except actual values for forest purposes, and the value is deter- 

 mined by the prior examination, having due regard to soil, water, timber 

 and location. What is determined to be the real value is included in the 

 form of a counter offer to the owner. If declined by him the matter is at 

 an end. If accepted, there follows the formal contract of purchase and sale, 

 duly acknowledged by the owner, so that if necessary the contract may 

 be placed on record. 



Following the execution of the contract is the title examination. The 

 Department has been singularly successful and fortunate in this part of its 

 work. All title work is done by a regularly incorporated title company, 

 whose expert examiners are the best in the state. Pennsylvania uses the 

 old common law forms of title, and the unseated land titles are among the 

 most complicated and difficult of the kind. 



The title work is closed by a report of the examiner, certifying a clear 

 title, if it be so, otherwise pointing out all defects, which must be remedied 



