veterinary college, who shall receive an annual salary of twenty-five hundred 
dollars each. * * * The governor is hereby authorized to appoint one chief 
clerk of the department at an annual salary of sixteen hundred dollars, a stenog- 
rapher, at a salary of eight hundred dollars a year, and one messenger, at a 
salary of six hundred dollars a year, and the dairy and food commissioner, the 
commissioner of forestry, and the economic zoologist, shall each have a clerk 
who shall be appointed by the governor, and who shall serve under the direction 
of the respective commissioners aforesaid and receive a salary of fifteen hundred 
dollars a year each. 
% x * % * x % 
Sec. 6. That the secretary may, at his discretion, employ experts for special 
examinations or investigations, the expenses of which shall be paid by the State 
treasurer in the same manner as like expenses are provided by law, but not more 
than five thousand dollars shall be so expended in any one year. In this annual 
report to the governor he may include so much of the reports of other organiza- 
tions as he shall deem proper which shall take the place of the present agricul- 
tural reports and of which thirty-one thousand six hundred copies shall be pub- 
lished and distributed as follows: To the senate, nine thousand copies; to the 
house of representatives, twenty thousand copies; to the secretary of agriculture, 
two thousand copies; to the State librarian, for distribution among public 
libraries and for reserve work, five hundred copies; and to the State agricultural 
experiment station, one hundred copies. 
Src. 7. That the secretary of agriculture shall have an office at the State 
Capitol, and it is hereby made the duty of the commissioners of public buildings 
and grounds to provide the necessary rooms, furniture and apparatus for the use 
of the department. 
Src. 8. That all acts, or parts of acts, inconsistent herewith, be and the same 
are hereby repealed. 
The legislature of 1897, in addition to passing— 
An act making constables of townships ex-officio fire wardens for the extinction 
of forest fires, and for reporting to the court or quarter sessions violations of the 
laws for the protection of forests from fire, prescribing the duties of such fire 
wardens and their punishment for failure to perform the same, and empowering 
them to require, under penalty, the assistance of other persons in the extinction 
of such fires; 
and 
An act to amend the first section of an act, entitled ‘‘An act to protect timber 
lands from fire,’ approved the second day of June, Anno Domini one thousand 
eight hundred and seventy, providing for a penalty in case of the failure of county 
commissioners to comply with the terms of said act, after demand made upon 
them by the commissioner of forestry, and providing for the Commonwealth 
bearing part of the expenses incurred under said act; 
also, 
An act to authorize constables and other peace officers, without first procuring 
a warrant, to arrest persons reasonably suspected by them of offending against 
the laws protecting timber lands, 
enacted the following laws which, it is hoped, may lead to similar 
legislation in other States: 
AN Act for the preservation of forests and partially relieving forest lands from taxation. 
Be it enacted, ete. : 
SECTION 1. That in consideration of the public benefit to be derived from the 
retention of forest or timber trees, the owner or owners of land in this Common- 
wealth having on it forest or timber trees of not less than fifty trees to the acre, 
and each of said trees to measure at least eight inches in diameter at a height of 
six feet above the surface of the ground, with no portion of the said land abso- 
lutely cleared of the said trees, shall, on making due proof thereof, be entitled 
to receive annually from the commissioners of their respective counties during 
the period that the said trees are maintained in sound condition upon the said 
land, a sum equal to eighty per centum of all taxes annually assessed and paid 
upon the said land, or so much of the said eighty per centum as shall not exceed 
the sum of forty-five cents per acre: Provided, however, That no one property 
owner shall be entitled to receive said sum on more than fifty acres. 
