No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE FORESTER. 319 



The last General Court created, and Governor Foss ap- 

 pointed, a commission on the taxation of waste and forest lands. 

 This commission has been arduously at work holding hearings 

 throughout the State and making a study of the subject during 

 the summer and fall. These deliberations will be incorporated 

 into a bill to be submitted to the incoming Legislature for its 

 approval. I am sure we will all welcome a more wholesome 

 and definitely regulated system of taxation, to encourage the 

 practice of modern forestry in the State. 



Our present method of leaving slash after lumbering opera- 

 tions continues to be one of our greatest menaces, and results 

 in constant loss and damages to forest property owners. In 

 talking with some of our best lumbermen it is generally agreed 

 that if we were to require that the slash be disposed of, it 

 would do more for future forestry possibilities in the State than 

 any other one thing. Our really great forest-fire losses are 

 inevitably caused, not by the average fire that is found in the 

 woods, but from the fact that these fires occasionally reach 

 large bodies of slash where they get the momentum that be- 

 comes uncontrollable. The time is bound to come when this 

 slash menace must be regulated. Why not give it due con- 

 sideration at the present time? 



It is believed that the time is ripe for the State to enlarge 

 upon its forest policy to the extent of establishing State forests. 

 The work under our reforestation act has been a pronounced 

 success and very useful as a beginning, but we need a much 

 more pretentious undertaking to do justice to the needs of the 

 State. Massachusetts surely can afford as extensive a policy 

 as many other States are practicing. With our present outlook 

 in utilizing the State institutions for growing our small trees 

 cheaply, we could reforest and manage large tracts of present 

 worthless or waste lands in a practical and economic way. I 

 would respectfully urge the incoming Legislature to give this 

 subject due consideration. 



Organization. 



It has been my purpose to have the organization of the State 

 Forester's department composed of loyal, wide awake, enthusi- 

 astic, experienced men. 



A clear-cut organization, in which each official not only has 



