09 



as existing in New Hampshire calls for State interference there to 

 protect the manufacturing interests, a similar condition here equally 

 demands that our State shall interfere to arrest the calamities which 

 have already threatened to wreck and injure the prosperity of an- 

 other state. 



It may be taken for granted that in the near future Pennsylvania 

 will follow the example already set by the State of New York. 



The question remaining is, how shall the land be acquired? It is 

 in vain to hope that the Commonwealth will come into possession of 

 any area worthy to be called a state forestry reservation upon which 

 a mature forest now 7 stands, for such no longer exists within our 

 limits. Every such body of timber is reduced in size, and circum- 

 scribed by clearings. The very utmost that we can do will be to 

 secure the location and to produce the forest. We will be wise if 

 we obtain the place before we are obliged to produce the soil as well 

 as the trees. Even now it is probable that it will cost the Common- 

 wealth as much to obtain the naked, treeless area as it received for 

 the same ground when it was covered with timber, out of which for- 

 tunes have grown. It is quite clear that as the necessity of these 

 lands to the State become more and more real, they will be held 

 higher by the owners, even though each succeeding year has ren- 

 dered the soil more and more impoverished. Neither will there ever 

 be a time when the demand made upon the State Treasury will be so 

 light as to render the acquisition of the needed land easier than now 

 if they are to be acquired by exercise of the right of eminent domain 

 and subsequently paid for. 



It is proper here to call attention to the measure recommended 

 after very careful consideration and laid before the last Legislature. 

 It received a negative recommendation from the committee on appro- 

 priations, as it was thought the condition of the State Treasury 

 would not at the time warrant the expenditure. It is again sub- 

 mitted for your consideration, though with the statement that it 

 could be improved upon by some slight alteration: 



AN ACT 

 TO PROVIDE STATE RESERVATION. 



Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly 

 met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That 

 the State Forestry Commission shall locate and report to the Gov- 

 ernor or to the Legislature if it is in session, the following state 

 forestry reservations: 



(1.) One of not less than 40,000 acres in Pike, Monroe, Luzerne OP 

 La cka wanna counties. 



