Ko. 4.] FORESTRY IN MASSACHUSETrS. 07 



Town and State Forests. 



Lastly, there will arise cases and conditions where the 

 State itself must step in, own the lands and do the reforest in a'. 



Twenty-five years ago the idea of permanent State owner- 

 ship of land for an3^thing but the immediate need of State 

 business, or to be disposed of to settlers, was considered so 

 inimical to the American spirit and State idea that it was 

 dangerous to propose such an innovation as a State forest 

 reserve for no other purpose than the perpetuation of forests. 

 Now this is all changed. The first State to change its atti- 

 tude was New York, in 1885, when the beginnings were made 

 of creating a State forest, for the purpose of perpetuating 

 favorable river-flow conditions and timber supph\ This 

 reserve comprises now over 1,250,000 acres, and, although 

 lately its purpose has been perverted by selfish sportsman's 

 interests and pleasure seekers, and has made forest manage- 

 ment in the reserve impossible, it will be only a short time 

 until the blunder is corrected. 



The federal government was persuaded to change its land 

 policy in 1891, and we have now over 60,000,000 acres in 

 forest reserves in the Public Land States, with more to fol- 

 low. Pennsylvania fell in line in 1899, and is acquiring 

 lands by purchase as fast as practicable, having at last report 

 secured (300,000 acres, and proposing to increase the State 

 forest to 3,000,000 acres at least. Minnesota, Wisconsin 

 and Michioan are working- in the same direction. 



The })roposition for the State of Massachusetts to enter 

 upon a policy of State forests has been brought before you 

 by Colonel Appleton, in 1890, who thought the State should 

 purchase .stump or waste lands at low valuation, and by pac- 

 ing the taxes on it make the measure acceptable ; and again 

 b}^ Mr. Chamberlain, in 1900, who advocated the purchase 

 of stump lands at $3 per acre. 



That activity in this direction is not entirely foreign to your 

 institutions appears from the interesting beginning which the 

 State has made in the Province Lands, in covering some 175 

 acres with forest growth during the last eight years. This, 

 to be sure, was a protective measure for the purpose of 



