Conservation Commission. 73 



systematic effort is being made to secure the necessary data in 

 order that the classification of these lands may be made. The 

 result will not only determine responsibility for administration, 

 but solve the question as to whether or not they may be leased or 

 sold, and also whether they are subject to taxation. 



Valuation Surveys. 



There is urgent need for a careful examination and report on 

 the State's holdings. This information may best be secured by 

 making forest valuation surveys. It is certainly just as important 

 for the State to know the amount, location, nature and value of 

 its holdings, as it is for a large corporation to take an inventory 

 of its property. At the present time information of this nature 

 is of the most meagre kind. These surveys would show not only 

 the timber on State land, but the amount of species by diameter 

 classes for different areas and types; they would not only give 

 information useful to the State and the office charged with the 

 administration of the property, but afford necessary facts desir- 

 able from the standpoint of taxation, location of observation 

 stations, and better forest fire protection, and secure a delineation 

 of the areas necessary to be reforested. The forest rangers would 

 be employed to a certain extent upon this work and they would 

 be given useful and sufficient instructions, thereby making their 

 services more valuable. Private land owners would necessarily 

 become interested and the possibility of securing a more economic 

 management of private forest property would result. Desirable 

 data relative to game protection and water storage would also be 

 secured. The information would be useful in so many ways that 

 the expense would be saved in a very short time, and instead of 

 having incomplete and only partial data, a systematic survey 

 with complete knowledge of conditions would be secured. 



BOUNDARIES. 



The first principle of forest protection or management is the 

 definite location and demarcation of the boundaries of the pro- 

 perty. The vast extent of the property lines and the fact that 

 many of them are so old, makes the work not only extended but 

 difficult. The limited appropriations prevent systematic work and 

 necessitate confining the surveys to those areas where danger from 



