36 FOREST FIRES IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



forests, for exixrimental, demonstration, educational, parlv. and protection 

 purposes, using for such purposes any special ai)pr()pi-iations or funds availa- 

 ble. The Attorney-General of the State is directed to see that all deeds to 

 the State of land mentioned in this section are properly executed before the 

 gift is accepted or payment of the purchase money is made. Said State 

 forests shall be subject to county taxes assessed on the same basis as are 

 private lands, to be paid out of moneys in the State Treasury not otherwise 

 appropriated. 



Sec. 2. That all moneys received from the sale of wood, timber, minerals, 

 or other products from the State forests shall be paid into the State Treasury 

 and to the credit of the Geological Board ; and such moneys shall be expended 

 in carrying out the puri)oses of this act and of forestry in general, under the 

 direction of the Geological Board. 



Sec. 2V>. That nothing in this act shall operate or be construed as authority 

 for the payment of any money out of the State Treasury for the purchase of 

 lands or for other purposes unless by appropriation for said purpose by the 

 General Assembly. 



Sec. 3. That all laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this act are hereby 

 repealed. 



Sec. 4. That this act shall be in force from and after its ratification. 



Ratified this the 9th day of March. A. D. 1915. 



Though this is a new departure for N'orth Carolina, it is by no means 

 a new idea, as State experiment and demonstration forests have been 

 consistently advocated by the Xorth Carolina Geological and Economic 

 Survey for a number of years (see Economic Paper 'No. 22, p. 42 ; Press 

 Bulletins Nos. 130, 142, 145). A number of States to the north and 

 west of us are now operating such forests. The Forestry Committee of 

 the Fifth National Conservation Congress reported two years ago a total 

 of sixty-three State forest experiment stations in eleven States, more 

 than three-quarters of them being in the two States of Pennsylvania and 

 Ohio. In some cases regular State forests, or parts of them, are used as 

 experiment forests, while in other cases separate and smaller areas are 

 procured. Ohio, for example, has fourteen experiment forests and no 

 State forests, while Michigan has fifty-two State forests and only one 

 experiment forest. However, all organized and administered State 

 forests cannot help but be demonstration forests to a greater or less ex- 

 tent, because they show to the citizens how the State manages its own 

 forest lands. Whether these are managed in the right or wrong way 

 depends on the knowledge and money available, and the knowledge de- 

 pends, at least in part, on experiments which should be made on those or 

 similar forest areas. 



Gifts of Land for State Forests. 



There are, no doubt, many public-spirited citizens of Nortli Carolina 

 who, if they realized the need for demonstration and ex[)criment forests, 



