596 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



in having well established and apparently permanent 

 wood-using industries, and she is in a position geograph- 

 ically to supply highly developed agricultural and in- 

 dustrial states near at hand. This combined with her 

 remarkable scenic and fish and game resources, would 

 make her future seem bright with respect to her forests. 

 "Minnesota however, must face the problem of forest 

 protection and renewal. She must meet them by giving 

 better support to an efficient Forest Service, under the 

 leadership of Mr. Cox. 



"She should convert the state lands into state forests 

 under the administration of the state forest service. 



"The State Forester is handicapped in not being pro- 

 vided with forest nurseries. Minnesota needs to do a 

 lot of forest planting, and judging from the successful 

 seed tree experiments observed, regulatory measures in 

 this respect are well worthy of trial. 



"But above all Minnesota should prevent forest fires." 

 The state foresters were a unit in believing that Min- 

 nesota should place all of its state forest land under the 

 supervision of the State Board of Forestry and passed 

 a resolution strongly recommending "that the remaining 

 state-owned land be placed under the control of the 

 Stale Board of Forestry, believing this to be the best 

 land policy not only for Minnesota but for the country 

 as a whole." Minnesota has thus far set aside some 400- 

 000 acres in State Forests which are under the super- 

 vision of the 

 state forest 

 service but 

 there remains 

 about 700,000 

 acres, under 

 control of a 

 board of tim- 

 ber commis- 

 sioners, from 

 which the state 

 i s currently 

 selling oflf tim- 

 ber and dis- 

 posing of the 

 land or hold- 

 ing it as cut- 

 over property. 

 C o m m enting 

 on this policy, 

 C. R. Pettis, 

 superintendent 

 of state for- 

 ests, New 

 York, said: 



"Minnesota seems to be a country where by process 

 of elimination and classification lands will be eventually 

 turned into their proper use and held for that purpose. 

 In the meantime, I think their policy is radically wrong. 

 "We went through very much the same system 

 in New York. A century ago the state was the owner 

 of vast areas of wild mountain and forest land, and 

 they were patented in large and small tracts with the 



idea of getting rid of the land as quickly as possible 

 and putting a paltry sum of money into the state treas- 

 ury. A great many people, with the very best of 

 motives and intentions, acquired some of these lands 

 to build baronial estates, etc., and the history of the 

 country is a series of wrecks of life and finance. 



"About 1820, a law was passed which provided that 

 these lands which had been patented could be taxed. 

 This placed a burden upon many of these landowners 

 with little income, and on account of the inaccessibility 

 of the timber they were unable to obtain from the 

 property revenue to make it supporting. This led to a 

 kind of lumbering where only at first the white pine 

 was taken off. In those days of much cheap lumber 

 probably this was all they could afford to take out, 

 and then only the choicest parts of the tree which 

 was taken down were removed. After such lumbering 

 oftentimes the lands reverted to the state because no 

 one would pay the taxes on the property. 



"The state held these lands as security for the taxes 

 which they had advanced. If the land did not burn 

 over in later years when timber became valuable, some 

 of the lumbermen could go to the state comptroller 

 and pay up the back taxes and get a deed for the land, 

 and they would go in and lumber off the cream of the 

 spruce and then let the land go for taxes again. 

 "This sort of process continued and was extensively 



worked until 

 the year 1883 

 when laws 

 were enacted 

 prohibiting the 

 further sale or 

 redemption of 

 any lands 

 owTied by the 

 state in the 

 twelve Adiron- 

 dack and the 

 four Catskill 

 counties. This 

 1 a w immedi- 

 ately made a 

 forest preserve 

 Df substantially 

 800.000 acres. 

 The land was 

 in the custody 

 of the state 

 c o m p t r oiler 

 and he did not 

 know what to 

 do with it. In 1884, the legislature made an ai>pro- 

 priation of about $5,000 for the use of the state comp- 

 troller in appointing a commission to investigate the 

 matter and make a report as to the policy of the state 

 in the handling of these lands. Dr. Charles S. Sargent, 

 of the Arnold Arboritum, was made chairman of this 

 commission and they made a report to the legislature 

 in 1885, and as a result the care and custody of these 



DOES THIS LOOK LIKE NATURAL REGENERATION OF NORWAY PINE ON THE MINNESOTA 

 NATIONAL FOREST IS A FAILURE, AS CERTAIN OPPONENTS OF THE FOREST WOULD HAVE 

 CONGRESS BELIEVE? AREA CUT OVER IN 19081909, TEN PER CENT OF ORIGINAL STAND 

 LEFT FOR SEED TREES. NOTE ABUNDANT REPRODUCTION. 



