FORESTER'S REPORT. 65 



SHELTER CABINS. 



Another means of helping to control fires is provided by the 

 erection of cabins where tools can be stored and, at need, men find 

 shelter. One is located on Lebanon Reserve and one on Penn Re- 

 serve near points from which a good outlook can be had and con- 

 venient to the telephone. As no stream is near each is also pro- 

 vided with a pump to furnish water for fighting fire as well as for 

 drinking. Other similar cabins probably will be built from time to 

 time. They cost with equipment about $150 each. 



FOREST PLANTATIONS. 



No new plantations have been made within the year. Those es- 

 tablished last year and earlier have been so handicapped by suc- 

 cessive droughts that it has been thought advisable to hold up this 

 work for a time and meanwhile to plan for a series of experimental 

 plantings that may be expected to indicate quite definitely what 

 species of trees are best adapted to our conditions. Fortunately 

 we have no reserve land' that lacks forest and must be planted to 

 redeem it. The fifty or sixty acres that are cleared give no more 

 ground than is needed for experiments. 



PRODUCT OF THE RESERVES. 



Forestry is justifiable when it produces tangible results. Forest 

 reserves must yield an income to the State, in money that repre- 

 sents current interest on the investment, in material that its citizens 

 need, or in improved living conditions fresh air, pure water, con- 

 venient play grounds. The aim of the reserve management is to 

 do all these things. But as often happens the last is apt to be first. 

 No forest as degraded as those on all the reserves but one can be 

 expected to yield much timber for many years ; it can, however, soon 

 yield many benefits, as the reserves now do. 



On the material side each reserve produces a little: some fire- 

 wood, a little moss, a few cranberries. The total receipts for the 

 year were $508.57 though the greater part, $410.95, came from an 

 improvement cutting of 20 acres on Mount Laurel. 



