- FOREST CONSERVATION IN SOUTHERN PINE REGION. 9 
ests. Those now having State forests are Connecticut, Indiana, 
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, 
New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, and 
Wisconsin. The number of State forests is approximately 150 and 
their aggregate area 3,700,000 acres. New York has 1,800,000 acres, 
Pennsylvania 1,000,000, Wisconsin 400,000 acres, and Michigan 
277,000 acres. At a recent election the people of Minnesota approved 
an amendment to the constitution permitting the State to set aside 
as State forests all lands now owned by it which are chiefly valuable 
for the production of timber, amounting to about a million acres. 
Practically all of these State forests have been established through 
purchase, although in the West some were set aside from lands 
already owned by the States. New York has spent approximately 
$4,075,000 and Pennsylvania $2,250,000 in buying lands for State 
- forests. Pennsylvania has paid about $2.25 an acre for the same 
land, cut over and burned, which it sold years ago, when covered — 
with timber, for about 27 cents an acre. These lands are now esti- 
mated to be worth $6 an acre. _ 
The Federal Government, under the terms of the so-called Weeks 
law, has also adopted this policy as regards lands situated on the 
forested watersheds of navigable streams and has appropriated 
$11,000,000 for purchases. 
It is probable that the States in the southern pine region have 
disposed of nearly all their timber holdings. Just how much of 
such land, which can be used most profitably for growing timber, 
remains in the ownership of the States should be determined as soon 
at practicable and steps taken to withdraw it from sale and set it 
aside as State forests. In addition, these States should gradually 
acquire, through purchase or gift, other bodies of true forest land, 
especially in regions like the Southern Appalachians, the pine hills, 
and the Edwards Plateau in Texas. When lands are taken over by 
a State provision should be made to reimburse the counties and the 
townships for loss of tax revenue. Some States pay a tax on the 
same basis as 1f such lands were privately owned; others pay a fixed 
charge of a few cents an acre. The Federal Government gives 
counties in which National Forests are situated 25 per cent of the 
gross revenues, and an additional 10 per cent is used, in cooperation 
with the localities concerned, for the construction of public roads. 
LEGISLATION. 
A consistent and comprehensive forest policy can be carried out 
only through a forestry department and a State forester. Such 
departments are urgently needed and earnestly recommended. ‘They 
have been established in only three States in the southern pine re- 
