CHIEF FIRE WARDEN. 47 



Alsace-Lorraine, with an area of only one-fifteenth that 

 of Minnesota, has 338, 500 acres of state forest yielding 

 an annual average net profit of $2.50 per acre. 



The Duchy of Baden, not as large as Pine county in 

 this state, from its 240,000 acres of state forest, derives 

 a net annual revenue of #667,000, or $2.50 per acre. 



The Kingdom of Wurtemberg, only a very little larger 

 than our county of St. Louis, derives a net annual revenue 

 of 11,700,000 from its 418,000 acres of state forest, or 

 $4.00 per acre. 



The Kingdom of Saxony, from its 432,000 acres of 

 state forest, mostly on poor mountainous land, derives a 

 net annual revenue of 11,946,000, being at the rate of 

 14.50 per acre. 



The forest profits in all these countries, and especially 

 in Saxony, are owing to the density of population, cheap- 

 ness of labor, high price of lumber and facilities of getting 

 it to market. The forests are not only profitable in a 

 money sense, but they furnish many indirect benefits, 

 including water supply. They are provided with good 

 roads, are well guarded, are delightful resorts, and are no 

 impediment to the cultivation of neighboring agricultural 

 lands. 



Progress in Forestry. 



In the past ten years the United States government 

 has established sixty million acres of forest reserves, 

 on mostly mountainous land, under a partially equipped 

 force of rangers and guards. A division of forestry, under 

 a forest expert, to administer these reserves, has been 

 created in the Department of the Interior. The bureau 

 of forestry, in the Department of Agriculture, now ex- 

 pends about 150,000 annually in useful work, and last 

 year made forestry investigations, not only in the national 

 reserves, but in as many as twenty diff^erent states, at the 

 request of the respective state governments; also made 

 forest working plans for over a miUion acres. In this 



