38 FORESTRY BULLETIN 



Pennsylvania has a law, passed in 1895, an<J approved by the Governor^ 

 March 13, of that year, creating a Department of Agriculture, and charg- 

 ing it with the duty of caring for the forestry interests of the state. 

 Section 3, of the law reads as follows : 



V Sec. 3. "That it shall be the duty of the Secretary to obtain and publish 

 information respecting the extent and condition of the forest lands in this- 

 state, to make and carry out rules and regulations for the enforcement 

 of all laws designed to protect forests from fires, and from all illegal 

 depredations and destruction, and report the same annually to the Gover- 

 nor, and as far as practicable, to give information and advice respecting 

 the best methods of preserving woodland and starting new plantations. 

 He shall also, as far as practicable, procure statistics of the amount of 

 timber cut during each year, the purposes for which it is used and the 

 amount of timber land thus cleared as compared with the amount of land 

 newly brought under timber cultivation, and shall in general adopt all 

 such measures as, in his judgment, may be desirable and effective, for the 

 preservation and increase of the timber lands, and shall have direct 

 charge and control of the management of all forest lands belonging to the 

 commonwealth, subject to the provisions of the law relative thereto." 



The legislature of 1897 passed several additional acts, making the 

 constables of townships ex offldio fire wardens and authorizing them with- 

 out a warrant to arrest persons reasonably suspected by them of offending 

 against the laws protecting timber lands. The owner of any land in 

 that state having on it forest or timber trees, not less than fifty trees ta 

 the acre, measuring at least eight inches in diameter six feet above the 

 ground, with no portion of the land clear, shall receive a rebate of 80- 

 per cent of the taxes assessed and paid upon such land as long as the trees^ 

 are maintained in sound condition. Such rebate shall not exceed forty- 

 five cents per acre. 



It is made the duty of the Commissioner of Forestry to examine the 

 location and character of lands advertised for sale for non-payment of 

 taxes, and if he finds them so located and of such a character as to make 

 them desirable for the purpose of a forestry reservation, he may purchase 

 them at the tax sales, subject of course, to right of redemption, to become 

 part of a forestry reservation system, having in view the preservation of 

 the water supply at the sources of the rivers of the state and the pro- 

 tection of the people of the commonwealth and their property from de- 

 structive fioods. 



By the same legislature a commission was created to be composed of 

 the Commissioner of Forestry, the Chairman of the State Board of 

 Health, the Deputy Secretary of Internal Affairs, a lawyer or conveyancer * 

 of ten years' professional experience, and a practical surveyor. The duty 

 of this commission is to locate and report to the legislature three forestrv 

 reservations selected from lands suited to the growth of trees rather than 

 to mining or agriculture, and with an average altitude of not less than six 

 hundred feet above the sea level. Each of these reservations is to con- 

 sist of not less than forty thousand acres. One reservation is to be lo- 

 cated upon the head waters of the Delaware river, another upon the head 

 waters of the Susquehanna and the third upon those of the Ohio 



Upon several points the legislation, in the states adjacent to Michigan 

 seems to be in substantial accord. In each of them a state forest park of 

 broad area has been reserved and is to be maintained. These forest 

 tracts subserve several purposes, they are the laboratories in which ex- 



