4 THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, 



linquent State tax lands and toward other forest, denuded or waste 

 lands owned by individuals, particularly as affecting the fire problem, 

 the conservation and increase of water supply, and the equalization 

 and regulation of stream flow; (2) prescribe some method of defining 

 the limits of forest reserves, and the manner in which the delinquent 

 State tax lands, now owned or that shall hereafter be acquired, shall 

 become a part thereof; (3) submit a draft of such laws as, in the judg- 

 ment of the Commission of Inquiry, will best enable the State to per- 

 fect its title to said delinquent State tax lands, protect the timber 

 thereon, provide the most practical means of checking and preventing 

 the starting and spreading of fires thereon, or on other waste or forest 

 lands situated in the State; (4) submit a draft of such other law or 

 laws as the Commission of Inquiry may deem conducive to the profit- 

 able and economical administration of the business and affairs of the 

 State in reference to the matters which are the subject of this investiga- 

 tion; (5) submit, as a part of its report, such findings and recommenda- 

 tions, germane to the subject, as the Commission of Inquiry shall deem 

 advisable. 



The title of the act in express language calls for a plan that shall be 

 comprehensive, to the end that the policy hereafter pursued by the State 

 may be consistent and complete. It is therefore expressly directed that 

 this plan shall suggest a course of action for the State in reference, not 

 only to its present and future holdings of land forfeited for taxes, but 

 also in reference to denuded, waste and forest land owned by others. 

 A plan is called for which shall not only provide for the utilization of 

 the tax lands by their settlement and improvement, and by the establish- 

 ment of State Forest Eeserves upon them, but which shall also deal 

 with the relation of the State to these tax lands, and to other forest, 

 waste or denuded lands, as it concerns the general subject of forestry; 

 and, in this connection, a reJ)ort is called for upon reforestation', the 

 fire problem, and the conservation and betterment of water supply and 

 stream flow. It is obvious that these large benefits to public welfare 

 were not less in thei mind of the legislature than was the utilization of 

 the tax lands, or the solution of the purely administrative questions 

 clustering about them. Reforestation of the waste areas of the State, 

 the furnishing to future generations of an adequate timber supply, the 

 conservation of water supply and the betterment of conditions affecting 

 floods, water power, stream flow, are questions of as great moment as 

 any State can face. 



Inasmuch as, for reasojis more fully presented hereafter, these benefits 

 can be secured only by the bringing back into forest conditions of greater 

 areas than any reserves the State can create out of the delinquent tax 

 lands; it follows that the requisite area must either be purchased by 

 the State, or its reforestation must be brought about through encourage- 

 ment to individual effort. It is therefore within the clear meaning and 

 intent of the language of this act, if not within its express words, to 

 submit suggestions for such legislation a^ will lead to forestry by in- 

 dividuals, especially in the way of farm forestry in the older and more 

 settled portions of the State, and in the way of reforestation of cut- 

 over, denuded and waste lands as a commercial venture in the less set- 

 tled districts of the northerly portions of the State. 



