FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 6 1 



eral public education along this line may be of greatest good. This year 

 the department used every medium it could devise to call the attention of 

 the public to the dangers, and to be careful. We stationed men at principal 

 points of entrance to the forests to warn all going into the woods, to instruct 

 them how, where and when to build fires and when not to build them at 

 all; warning notices were distributed by the thousands through trains and 

 to individuals. Newspapers gladly gave public notice and warnings. The 

 most wanton of all fires were caused willfully by berry-pickers. Unless 

 such people are more careful it may be necessary to exclude them from 

 State land. Fire, the greatest danger to forests, must in some way be pre- 

 vented, even though the method to prevent be made exceedingly drastic 

 and arbitrary. 



The next thing after being sure that we can save that which we have 

 is to acquire more. The importance of very soon acquiring much more of 

 the land in the forest preserve counties may well engage the earnest atten- 

 tion of the Legislature. Undoubtedly it may not strongly appeal to those 

 who are not at all familiar with the whole situation. But to those of us 

 whose duty it is to know, who are charged with the care and protection of 

 the State's holdings of forested land, the situation seems very acute and 

 important. To a very large degree the soft wood lumbering is nearly done 

 in this State. 



Naturally, hardwood lumbering will receive new impetus and hard- 

 wood become more valuable. New and heretofore unused methods in hard- 

 wood lumbering will be adopted. It cannot be floated; therefore, when 

 it becomes valuable enough railroads will be built into the hardwood districts. 

 If allowed, such lumbering will be prosecuted, and at the same time an} 7 

 soft woods left will be removed until not a stick will be left standing. More 

 or less fires will, of necessity, follow until all forest land is denuded. That 

 has been the history of all wooded countries where the government, state 

 or nation has not taken control. 



This is no time for a shilly-shally forest policy. There is little use in 

 half doing it. It is uneconomic. A comprehensive, strong, broad policy 

 by the State should be inaugurated immediately. As long as individuals or 

 corporations own and hold woodlands they cannot be blamed for getting their 

 investment out of them. In the long run they would realize much greater 



