io REPORT OF THE FOREST COMMISSION. 



attach to both sections though they are radically different in 

 most respects. 



GENERAL POLICY. 



No new way has been found to advance the work entrusted 

 to the Commission, and what it is doing continues nlainly along 

 the lines laid down several years ago. The chief effort has 

 been to meet the situation in a practical way, and to solve the 

 problems presented rather than to say much about what should 

 be done or how. The fact that nearly one-half (46 per cent.) 

 of New Jersey's area is classed as woodland gives ample ground 

 for a strong effort to develop this resource. That practically 

 all of the forest long ago passed from public to private posses- 

 sion makes clear the course that should be followed in seeking 

 to develop it. Thus all that the Commission does is based upon 

 the principle of making it worth any owner's while to protect 

 and develop his woodland. This policy does not necessarily pre- 

 clude the acquisition and maintenance of State reserves, though 

 it does subordinate that feature and has led the Commission 

 to announce that unless the State shall decide to devote much 

 more money than it now does to its forest interests, and specif- 

 ically shall provide for the care as well as for the purchase 

 of forest lands, it will advocate using for the protection and 

 betterment of all forests without regard to ownership all the 

 money that is available, and that until the whole body of wood- 

 land shall be reasonably safe from fire it will not seek to in- 

 crease the State's possessions. It will be noted that this attitude 

 is in strong contrast to that of most other bodies charged with 

 the forest interests of a State. 



FOREST FIRES. 



Justification for the Commission's policy of setting fire control 

 above all else is found in the fact that fire, or the fear of fire, 

 heretofore has made a forest a poor investment. New Jersey 

 is not alone in this respect, and though this Commission was the 



