20 ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



In 1904 there were all kinds of fish hatched, reared and distributed — in 

 round numbers, 111,000,000. In 1905 there have been hatched, reared 

 and distributed from the State hatcheries, 171,000,000 fish of all kinds. A 

 la rye proportion of this increase over 1904 were game fish, especially trout. 

 The fines and penalties collected in the calendar year of 1904 were $23,636.86. 

 The fines and penalties collected in the calendar year 1905 were $58,548.08, 

 which shows an increase of fines and penalties over 1904 of $34,911.22. 



The number of trespasses on State lands reported in 1904 were few; this 

 year, 1905, there have been discovered and reported 85 trespasses previously 

 committed, not including about a half dozen small ones, such as the cutting 

 of firewood. Of these, 23 have been disposed of by compelling the payment 

 of at least three times the value of the timber destroyed. The balance of 

 the 85 are under process of settlement at the same or larger figures, or 

 actions have been commenced and are now pending. 



The trespasses committed from May 20, 1905, to December 31, 1905, 

 compare with those previously committed in a like period of time as one 

 to ten. 



Without discussing the policy of the Commission in relation to trespassing 

 on State lands prior to my incumbency, suffice it to say that the present 

 policy is to hold all persons strictly accountable under a strict construction 

 of the constitutional provision in relation to the Forest Preserve. That is, 

 that the Constitution means what it says, to wit: ' The lands of the State, 

 now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the Forest Preserve as now 

 fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be 

 leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, 

 nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed." Stating it in 

 another way, the State cannot through this Department, or otherwise, sell 

 or dispose of land or timber of any kind in the forest preserve as now fixed 

 by law. The provisions of the Constitution apply as well to down or 

 burned timber as to green or standing timber. Because of this under- 

 standing of the meaning of the Constitution, plainly expressed through the 

 policy of this Department during the year just closed, it can be truthfully 

 said that at this writing there is no trespass being committed in the Forest 

 Preserve, and very little likelihood of any hereafter. 



The increase of fines and penalties, the much larger number of fish dis- 



