91 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FOR- 

 ESTRY. 



HARRISBURG, PA., January 1, 1898. 

 HON. THOS. J. EDGE, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE : 



Dear Sir: For a division which has been in existence but two years, 

 operating in a field practically new to our people, with our plans to 

 formulate, and our methods of work to develop, we feel that a most 

 gratifying start has been made. 



It was something to convince a people, who had grown up in sight of 

 forests supposed to be inexhaustible, that they would do well to con- 

 sider the economical methods of lumbering which are practiced in re- 

 gions where timber is scare, and to provide by wise legal enactments 

 for a restoration of the forest wealth upon which so much of our past 

 prosperity has depended. We can hardly yet realize the full import 

 of the change in public sentiment which has come about so swiftly but 

 so quietly in this State. It is fair to add the strength of the forestry 

 movement in Pennsylvania is a surprise to those in other states who 

 are working with the same object in view. 



The whole w r ork here has been done along educational lines. That 

 so much has been accomplished is simply evidence that our people, 

 through their representatives, may be trusted to act wisely upon any 

 question which has been fully stated and fairly placed before them. 



Some of the work contemplated by the creation of this division has 

 involved changes in legislation which a few years ago would have been 

 considered as radical, yet the public has already placed the seal of its 

 approval upon them. For example, it has been an established policy 

 of the State, from the earliest period of its history, to dispose of its land 

 cheaply enough to induce settlers to occupy it all as speedily as pos- 

 sible. There was wisdom in this in former years. But we have clearly 

 outgrown the conditions then existing, and the necessity for a change 

 in policy has become apparent. It is now a cause of regret that the 

 need for a change was not discovered before the State had disposed of 

 practically all of its lands. It is now recognized that the good of the 

 largest number requires that a certain portion of the soil should re- 

 main as public property, to be managed for the public, in order that 

 the natural laws upon which the prosperous perpetuity of the State 

 depends be not violated, and the very surface of the soil, out of which 

 so much of the wealth and all of the food comes, may be preserved in 

 productive condition. 



