58 FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



with a high wall, with a few excellent people inside, but left the great 

 majority on the outside of the wall unable even to look in and see its great 

 natural beauty and enjoy its manifold blessings. 



" The present law will not permit putting State forest land on a safe 

 business basis. Under a slightly amended constitutional provision leaving 

 it absolutely safeguarded as to waste and improper use, it could be reasonably 

 used by all, protected from fire, and made to yield an annual revenue 

 through the utilization of the water, the removal of waste timber, and from 

 rentals from those who tenant it. This arrangement would provide main- 

 tenance without further appropriation, and annually add large tracts of 

 woodland. Why not? Should the few occupy it as against the many? 

 Are not the rights of all equal in this respect ? If it is to be held and used 

 simply to protect water sources while the water runs away unemployed, 

 except to sustain fish life and water the lowlands, then the present method 

 is right. If our forest preserves are to be used as well for those other and 

 more valuable purposes, then the present method of using, holding and 

 managing our woodlands is all wrong. 



' The water power developed in this State is about 27 per cent, of all 

 that developed in the United States. That which is developed here, to wit, 

 about 500,000 water horsepower, is, excluding Niagara and the St. Lawrence 

 rivers, about half of all which we have. Why let more than 500,000 water 

 horsepower, which money is waiting to develop, run to waste? Why not 

 employ the money and labor necessary to apply this greater power? Why 

 should not the assessable property of the State be increased by this amount ? 

 Why should not the State be receiving the large annual revenue this utilized 

 water horsepower would produce ? Why longer let it run away to the gray 

 old sea, doing little or no good? It seems to this department that a change 

 in the Constitution which would allow proper management and use of these 

 great natural resources, safeguarding all the interests of the State, would 

 commend itself to every thoughtful person." 



The Legislature last winter very wisely amended and strengthened 

 the forestry law in relation to fire protection, and the results worked out 

 and hereinbefore set forth fully justify that legislative action. 



The new provision of law to help protect the forests from fire by making 

 the fire danger less, to wit, the top-lopping law, was put into operation all 



