386 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



cure such forest survey, introduced into the legis- 

 lature in the year 1897, failed of passage. 



In Vermont a commission of inquiry was insti- 

 tuted in 1882, reporting in 1884 without any prac- 

 tical result, the proposed legislation remaining 

 unconsidered. 



In New York a law was passed in 1872 naming 

 seven citizens, with Horatio Seymour, chairman, 

 as a state park commission, instructed to make 

 inquiries with the view of reserving or appropriat- 

 ing the wild lands lying northward of the Mo- 

 hawk, or so much thereof as might be deemed 

 expedient, for a state park. The commission, 

 finding that the state then owned only 40,000 

 acres in that region, and that there was a tendency 

 on the part of the holders of the rest to combine 

 for the enhancement of values should the state 

 want to buy, recommended a law forbidding fur- 

 ther sales of state lands, and their retention when 

 forfeited for the nonpayment of taxes. 



It was eleven years later, in 1883, that this 

 recommendation was acted upon, when the state 

 through the nonpayment of taxes by the owners 

 had become possessed of 600,000 acres — the nu- 

 cleus of the later state forest preserve. 



In 1884, the comptroller was authorized to em- 

 ploy " such experts as he may deem necessary to 

 investigate and report a system of forest preser- 

 vation." The report of a commission of four 

 members was made in 1885, but the legislation 



