FORESTS OF PORTO RICO. 55 



owns land before it becomes possible to enforce trespass laws with 

 any degree of assurance. The establishment of the bounds of each 

 man's lawful property by survey would remove this present difficulty 

 and many others. 



A temporary expedient to meet the "conuco" and the charcoal 

 situation is to require a license. In the case of the "conuco" it 

 would only be possible to carry out a definite plan of licenses or 

 permits with respect to the public lands. In the case of charcoal 

 burning the method of regulation employed in Martinique offers a 

 favorable means of control. This law 1 provides in brief that before 

 a man can manufacture any charcoal he shall declare his intention 

 at the mayor's office and state also where he is to make it and in what 

 quantity. The vendor of charcoal other than the manufacturer 

 must also have a license. To secure such license the vendor must 

 present a certificate from the mayor showing that the manufacturer 

 has complied with the requirements of manufacture. Parties trans- 

 porting charcoal for their own use or that of another must have a 

 certificate from the police or mayor giving the residence of the person 

 from whom it was bought, his license number, and the number and 

 residence of the buyer. Retailers are prohibited from buying their 

 supplies in other than the regular markets of the island, and appro- 

 priate penalties are provided for violating any of these provisions. 

 Such a law as this properly enforced in Porto Rico would go a long 

 way toward preventing indiscriminate charcoal burning. 



THE LUQUILLO NATIONAL FOREST. 



Upon the transfer of the island to American sovereignty the Span- 

 ish Crown lands in the Sierra de Luquillo 2 became the property of 

 the Federal Government. Originally supposed to aggregate some 

 40,000 acres 3 and to embrace a considerable amount of practically 

 virgin forest land which was rapidly being cut and destroyed, these 

 lands were constituted the Luquillo Forest Reserve (now National 

 Forest), by presidential proclamation January 17, 1903. 4 Recently 

 completed surveys covering all but a small part of the central moun- 

 tain area, however, indicate a reduction in acreage to not over 15,000 

 acres, including probably the entire "hurricane hardwood" type. 

 Thus the timber producing possibilities of a considerable portion of 

 the area are not very promising, judging from present knowledge of 

 conditions. Nevertheless, for the present at least, these lands will 

 be retained in public ownership and whatever forest growth there 

 may be on them will be protected. 



1 A digest of this law has been referred to the committee mentioned in the note, p. 52. 



2 For forest description of this region see p. 31. 



3 Based on official records in the archives of the Division of Public Lands, Department of the Interior, 

 Porto Rico. 



4 The recommendation that this be done was made by Dr. Walter H . Evans, Chief of Division of Insular 

 Stations, States Relations Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, while the exploratory survey upon 

 which the boundary proclamation was based was made by Mr. O. W. Barrett, at that time Botanist of the 

 Porto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station. 



