390 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



In 1897, legislation, providing for an increase of 

 the state forest preserve, was passed by instituting 

 the Forest Preserve Board, whose function it is to 

 purchase lands with appropriations made from 

 time to time. Nearly $2,000,000 have been spent 

 on such purchases, and the preserve now contains 

 over 1,250,000 acres, which, if properly adminis- 

 tered under forest management, should at least pro- 

 duce the amount of about $150,000 annually for 

 supporting the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission. 



The state of New York was the first to inau- 

 gurate this forest reservation policy (even before 

 the federal government), as well as the first com- 

 prehensive effective forest fire law, with an organ- 

 ization for its execution, and furthermore took the 

 first steps to provide for the technical education 

 of foresters, by establishing in 1898 the New York 

 State College of Forestry, to be administered by 

 Cornell University, together with a demonstration 

 forest of 30,000 acres, located in the Adirondacks. 

 The demonstration area was designed to give a 

 practical object lesson of the manner in which a 

 forest may be managed for reproduction and for 

 profit; the college, to educate the foresters, who 

 may eventually become the technical advisers for 

 the management of the forest preserve. A four 

 years' course, leading to the degree of Forest 

 Engineer, as full and complete as any of the 

 European forestry schools, is offered. During the 

 first four years of its existence, the number of 



