10 EEPOET OF FOKEST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



This acreage is constantly increasing through the purchases of 

 the Commission. In fact, it is considerably greater at this date 

 than the above figures indicate, owing to lands that were purchased 

 but not conveyed at the time schedules were completed. 



It will be noticed by referring to the pages containing the fol- 

 lowing land list that one column is set apart in order to show the 

 source of title to each lot or parcel. From the data in this column 

 it appears that of the 773,235.02 acres acquired through tax sales, 

 the title to over three-fourths of the lands thus obtained came 

 through the sales of 1871 and 1877. The lands acquired at these 

 sales were for the most part covered with a virgin forest in which 

 no lumbering had been done. The greater part of the lands ac- 

 quired by the subsequent sales were what is known as lumbered 

 lands, although on a large portion of them the cutting had not 

 been very close. On this latter class of lots none of the hardwood 

 had been taken, and the softwoods had not been cut below 10 

 inches. By the tax sale of 1895 only 39,564 acres were acquired; 

 and in the sale of 1900 the acquisition from this source was re- 

 duced to 7,202 acres, nearly all of which consisted of lands sit- 

 uated outside the Adirondack Park. Any further extension of the 

 Forest Preserve, aside from a few small, worthless lots, will have 

 to be made through the medium of purchases by the State. 



As previously stated here the Forest Preserve consists of 6,771 

 separate lots or parcels of land, mostly 160-acre lots. Some tracts 

 are surveyed out in parcels of 200 acres each, and some town- 

 ships are subdivided into mile square lots. Some townships con- 

 taining 30,000 acres are merely quartered. And so the lots vary 

 from quarter-sections of 40 acres to quarter-townships of 7,500. 

 But, whether small or large, each one of these 6,771 parcels of State 

 land in the Forest Preserve has its own surveyed boundary, 

 stands on its own title, and is a distinct, independent piece of real 

 estate. Several of these lots, when purchased, may be conveyed 



