421 



Hamilton county. The boundaries of the forest preserve will not 

 probably be defined with any degree of exactness for some time 

 yet. Lands which nobody else wants or cares longer to own will 

 keep coming back to the State as heretofore, so that these bound- 

 aries must remain sufficiently elastic to take them in. What the 

 policy of the State should be in regard to increasing its possessions 

 in Hamilton county at this time is a matter for those in authority 

 to determine. The lands offered by the Everton Lumber Company, 

 while in blocks of considerable size, are widely scattered, and do 

 not all border upon State lands. None, however, are "far removed, 

 and the State owns large tracts on the outside of them in every 

 direction. Most of the soft timber was cut down and marketed 

 long ago, but there is a new growth coming on; the hard woods 

 are abundant as ever, and the difference in the general appearance 

 is scarcely appreciable; and so far as the State ownership is con- 

 cerned, and for all the uses and purposes contemplated in the 

 creation of the forest preserve, those lands are probably as valuable 

 now as they ever were. 



Respectfully submitted. 



E. D. RONAN, 

 Albany, December 29, 1890. 



Mr. Adams. — Won't you please state the date of this letter and 

 from whom to whom? 



Mr. Anibal. — This is a letter dated Albany, December 29, 1889, from 

 E. D. Ronan to Hon. Charles F. Tabor, Attornty-General. It accom- 

 panied the papers, the appraisals as made by these commissioners 

 and submitted to the Attorney-General, and by him sent with all the 

 papers now remaining on file in the Comptroller's office of this State. 

 If you will also take in this connection that the same E. D. Ronan is 

 the gentleman spoken in the former testimony here as the special 

 representative of the Attorney-General's office in making the appli- 

 cation for the appraisal, and who accompanied them in appraising the 

 respective lands of the State, as asked by the Everton Lumber Com- 

 pany, which they proposed to give the State in exchange for those 

 lands asked for by them. 



Mr. Adams. — Ronan represented the Attorney-General in these 

 proceedings ? 



Mr. Anibal. — Yes, sir. 



Mr. Fieko. — We have nothing more this afternoon and nothing 

 more unless something should become necessary by reason of evidence 

 they may be hereafter introduced. 



