348 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



age of stock used. There is also a section of the act which 

 enables us to buy land at not over $5 an acre, and not over 

 SO acres in one tract in any one year. 



Under this act some 4,489 acres have been acquired, as the 

 following list shows. Of these, about 1,000 acres are owned by 

 the State outright with no redemption clause, the land having 

 been bought at a price of from S2.50 to $5 per acre. Where 

 land has been bought, it is the policy of the office to purchase 

 adjoining land the following year in order that individual lots 

 may be more readily handled. We have advocated the removal 

 of the 80-acre limit, as the average cost of planting is much less 

 on large lots, and it is also often cheaper to acquire a large lot 

 than a number of small ones. 



These tracts will increase much in demonstration value in 

 the next few years, as it takes a plantation from five to ten 

 years to reach a height where it will attract attention. Even 

 now some of the older plantations set in 1909 have created an 

 interest in forest planting. 



This law seems to be meeting with the aims of those who 

 first advocated it, as throughout the State there are many land- 

 owners who would not sell their land outright or would not set 

 it out themselves, but who are willing to have the work done 

 by the State Forester. It is safe to say that not over 200 

 acres of the 5,000 and over would be restocked to-day had it 

 not been for this act enabling the owners to turn their land 

 over to the State to be planted. 



This year we have planted 782 acres of land, while the work 

 of filling in and replanting lots where loss was due to the last 

 few years' drought has been pushed with vigor. During the 

 winter months a number of old lots were cleared of brush which 

 had grown up and was interfering with the trees set. 



Forest Nursery. 



This fall, on land of the State Farm at Bridgewater, which 

 was prepared for a nursery, we transplanted over 500,000 two- 

 year old seedlings, consisting of white pine, Scotch pine and 

 white ash. 



The work was done by inmates of the farm under direction 

 of a foreman employed by this office. By using the farm labor 



