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The Legislature has also constituted a Forestry Commission, com- 

 posed of the Commissioner of Forestry, the chairman of the State 

 Board of Health, the Deputy Secretary of Internal Affairs, and two 

 oilier persons to be appointed by the Governor. This Commission 

 has power to locate and condemn, subject to jury damages, three 

 reservations of not less than 40,000 acres each, upon the head waters 

 of the Delaware, Susquehanna and Ohio rivers. The Commissioner 

 reports that at this time the State is in possession of 40,605 acres 

 and 99 perches, purchased under the acts of 30th of March, 1897, 

 and April 28, 1899, and these lands are under the control of the 

 Department of Agriculture as custodian for the State. 



There have been purchased, in addition, by the Forestry Commis- 

 sion, under act of May 25, 1897, 57,768 acres and 12 perches, making 

 a. total of 98,370 acres and 111 perches. Additional lands have been 

 reported to the Commission, amounting to 15,542.71, which if ap- 

 proved, will make the State the owner of 113,916 acres and 22 

 perches. The lands are situate in Elk, Lycoming, Clearfield, Clinton, 

 Pike, Cameron, Tioga, Centre and Mifflin counties. 



The proper care of the lands already purchased and of those 

 which the State shall in the future secure, is a subject of great 

 importance. The policy to be pursued should be carefully planned 

 so as to avoid the necessity for change in future years, to the detri- 

 ment of the interests of the State. A well considered body of prin- 

 ciples for their management should be compiled and embodied into 

 law, so as to prevent future Forestry Commissioners, who may be 

 unfamiliar with the purpose of the State, from overturning the 

 entire work of their predecessors. 



A well digested plan for future guidance should be at once se- 

 cured, and all efforts hereafter be directed to the carrying out of this 

 plan in the most economical and satisfactory way. Before any 

 forestry reservation system can be successful, there must be, first 

 of all, an effective means for preventing forest fires. This is fun- 

 damental in the forestry question in America, and no progress can 

 be made until this is secured. This being secured, the way is com- 

 paratively clear. Mere protection from fire will ensure in most 

 localities a fair growth of timber in a reasonable .time, without 

 much additional care. No doubt, in time, we shall set out planta- 

 tions of trees, selected with regard to their value in the arts, and to 

 their rapid maturing characteristics. In time, also, quick growing 

 trees will doubtless be discovered which can be cropped every fifteen 

 or twenty years; trees adapted to special uses arid cultivated to 

 produce the qualities required in the shortest time and with the 

 greatest certainty. Locust, hickory, chestnut, willow, poplar, lin- 

 den, white pine and others not yet discovered, are examples of what 



