56 FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



' Timber on State land under the present Constitution, unfortunately, 

 cannot be cared for in a practical manner, or cut or used. We can only 

 protect it from trespass and let it rot. We cannot clean it out when burned, 

 or down, ripe and old. The public cannot have the use of timber 

 that is fast depreciating in value, thereby shortening the supply, add- 

 ing to the demand, and increasing the price. We cannot utilize our 

 enormous waterpowers which should yield to the State a large annual 

 revenue. 



' It is the belief of this Department that the State has ample inherent 

 power to control the use of private property in such a way that public 

 interests may be best served and protected. The power in the State for 

 this purpose should be invoked to prevent in certain localities the cutting 

 of trees below ten inches in diameter, and to compel the clearing up of 

 refuse. This is a matter of regulation and may be done for the public 

 good without confiscation of private property. If this right to control 

 private property to some extent does exist, then no one should be allowed 

 to cut trees — at least in certain places where water sources would be 

 affected — below ten inches in diameter, and individuals should be com- 

 pelled to clean up the debris left after lumbering, thereby removing oppor- 

 tunity for fires. 



" Trees should be planted yearly by the millions. To encourage tree 

 planting for commercial purposes, it shoiild be made as attractive as possible 

 by legislative acts, encouraging thereby each one to plant trees who has a 

 waste acre of land fairly safe from fires. Trees should be furnished below 

 cost, and land dedicated to tree growing and planted ought to be exempt 

 from taxation. These are the lines to follow, and the only ones that seem 

 to lead to safety. 



" The State owns many acres of land outside the blue line in the six- 

 teen counties in which our forest preserve lies. These lands are detached, 

 widely separated, small parcels surrounded by private holdings, difficult 

 to protect, most, if not all of them, having been lumbered. It would be 

 wise to dispose of these parcels of land by sale, the proceeds to be used to 

 purchase land within the blue line, or to exchange them for equally valuable 

 lands inside the park limits, and thereby consolidate our holdings. Under 

 the Constitution this cannot now be done. To us there appears no good 



