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creation of this commission than you have since; how do you recon- 

 cile that, if so, with the statement their policy was different from 

 yours; yours has been to get land for the State? 



A. Because that is a poor country, and the holders of the land, after 

 taking the timber from it, abandoned it to the State, and the State's 

 policy was to collect the taxes where they could, and they were 

 obliged, of course, for many years to take these lands in, and they 

 increased very rapidly, accumulated, but, as Professor Sergeant says 

 in this report, even as far back as 1884, a year prior to the creation of 

 the forest commission, the lands had increased vastly in value in the 

 whole Adirondack region, and where that was the case, of course 

 either the owners would redeem themselves, or there were purchasers 

 who would appear and bid them in at the tax sales, so that during the 

 last five years the lands that had fallen to the State have been steadily 

 diminishing, although it is a fact that we hold now nearly a hundred 

 thousand acres more than we did in 1885, when we came into power. 



Q. In than 80,000 is included nearly 20,000 acres in the county of 

 Delaware which practically belonged to the State before, or to the 

 county, and was turned over to the State ? 



A. Quite likely, sir, but I think it is in evidence here by Mr. Sanger 

 that at this last tax sale very few lands were bid in by the State; I 

 attribute that to the great enhancement in value there; the increased 

 attention that has been draWh to the Adirondack region, and this 

 policy that has been outlined of having an Adirondack park; I think 

 there is a great misapprehension about the actual number of acres in 

 the Adirondack wilderness; you hear this loose talk about five or six 

 millions, but there are only about three millions and a half all told. 



Q. Do you think the enhancement, so called, in the value of 

 these lands has been produced largely from the opinion that 

 the State was about to purchase lands there, and would purchase even 

 at a higher price than they had been sold for for many years, rather 

 than in the enhancement of their intrinsic value? 



A. That has been a factor; the other consideration that you suggest 

 has had — of course you understand the area of forest lands through- 

 out the country is steadily diminishing, and as they diminish their 

 value is increasing; the Pennsylvania forests are almost gone, and the 

 Michigan and Wisconsin forests are largely impaired, and, naturally 

 with the increase of population and increase of wealth in a country, 

 soft woods must naturally increase in value. 



Q. Land from which the soft wood has been taken, how about that, 

 is that increasing in value ? 



