984 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 313. 



wardens for the purpose of extinguishing 

 forest fires, and requiring them to report to 

 the court of their respective counties all 

 violations of " any law now enacted or here- 

 after to be enacted for the purpose of 

 protecting forests from fire " * =i= * with 

 penalties for neglect of this duty. As be- 

 fore, the expense of carrying out its pro- 

 visions was apportioned one-half to the 

 county and one-half to the State, the limit 

 under each act being $500 for any one 

 county. 



This legislation is of such recent date 

 and the whole matter is so complicated and 

 of such acknowledged difficulty, that it may 

 well be questioned whether the best method 

 of treatment has yet been attained ; certain 

 it is, however, that the present law marks 

 a great advance upon preceding legislation 

 and that its tendency, if enforced for a 

 period of years, will be to more and more 

 restrict both the number and extent of 

 forest fires. 



Forest Beservations. 



In regard to forest reservations the leg- 

 islation of 1897 includes two important 

 acts. One of these authorizes the purchase 

 by the commonwealth of unseated lands 

 for the non-payment of taxes, for the pur- 

 pose of creating a State forest reservation, 

 requiring the commissioner of forestry to 

 examine the location and character of the 

 lands in question, and authorizing him to 

 purchase them for the commonwealth if in 

 his judgment they are available for the 

 forest reservation. The other act provides 

 for a commission of five members to locate 

 three forestry reservations of not less than 

 forty thousand acres each upon waters 

 draining mainly into the Delaware, Susque- 

 hanna and Ohio rivers respectively, each of 

 the reservations to be in one continuous 

 area as far as practicable, and at least 50 

 per cent, of each reservation to have an 

 average altitude of not less than six hun- 

 dred feet above the level of the sea. The 



commission is empowered to take by right 

 of eminent domain and condemn the lands 

 as State reservations, the procedure in case 

 of claim for damages being the same as al- 

 ready provided for the taking of land for 

 the opening of roads in the respective 

 counties in which the property is located. 



Growth of Tiviber hy Farmers. 



A third series of enactments appearing 

 in amended form in 1897 is designed to 

 encourage the growth of timber by farmers. 

 It is provided that in consideration of the 

 public benefit to be derived from the re- 

 tention of natural forest, the owners of land 

 having on it forest or timber trees of not 

 less than fifty trees to the acre, each 

 measuring at least eight inches in diameter 

 at a height of six feet from the ground, shall 

 be entitled to receive annually during the 

 period that the trees are maintained in 

 sound condition a sum equal to eighty per 

 cent, of all taxes annually assessed and 

 paid upon said land, the eighty per cent, 

 not to exceed 45 cents per acre, provided 

 also that no one property owner shall 

 be entitled to receive this sum on more 

 than fifty acres. 



In commenting upon this legislation the 

 Commissioner of Forestry, Dr. J. T. Roth- 

 rock, says : "It should be readily perceived 

 that these measures are directly in the in- 

 terest of the farmer. In the first place, it 

 is a partial removal of tax from land upon 

 which he receives no revenue. In the sec- 

 ond place, it is leading up to a lucrative 

 timber crop at a minimum of expense to 

 him, and in the third place, such land, when 

 on a farm, is often on the highest and 

 roughest part, overlooking the cultivated 

 fields, and from its decaying leaves and 

 humus a renewal of fertility is constantly 

 washed down to the lower fields. * * * All 

 of the above laws concern the individual 

 more than the commonwealth. They are 

 to make it possible for him to aid the State 



