PREFACE 



The forests of the State have been considered as coming 

 within the limits of the investigations and surveys of the Geo- 

 logical Survey, and the determination of the extent of the 

 forested land and the mapping of these lands have been 

 included in the work of the .Topographic Division. Early in 

 the history of the Topographic Siirvey the mapping of the 

 forest area was made to take note of the pine lands, the cedar- 

 swamp lands and the mixed pine and deciduous forest. Some 

 attention was given to the condition of ,the timber and to its 

 protection against forest fires, and in the Annual Report of the 

 State Geologist for 1885 there was a section on Forestry and 

 Forest Fires. On the completion of the topographic survey of 

 the State in 1887 the publication of the Atlas of Topographic 

 Maps gave practically sectional forest maps, which showed the 

 location, extent and topographic situation of all the forested 

 lands in the State. In the Report on Topography, published 

 in 1888, and entitled "Final Report of the State Geologist, 

 Vol. I, Topography, Magnetishi and Climate," there were many 

 notes on the extent and nature of the forests, and their relation 

 to the characteristic soils of the great natural divisions of the 

 State. In the Annual Report of the State Geologist for 1891 

 the oak-land and pine-land belts of Southern New Jersey were 

 described by C. W. Coman, Assistant Geologist to the Survey. 

 The studies of Mr. C. C. Vermeule, Topographer of the Survey, 

 on Wat^r-Supply and Water-Power, which were begun in 1890, 

 also covered the subject of forests and their relation to water- 

 supply. His annual reports for 1890, 1891, 1892 and 1893 and 

 the full report in 1894 had many references to the forested con- 

 ditions of the several water-sheds. 



The first specific enactment of the . Legislature directing a 

 survey of the forested lands of the Sate was made in the session 



(v) 



