appraised hundreds of thousands of acres for the government in the purchase 

 of lands for national forests under the Weeks Law. Their report was based 

 entirely on the value of the lands for timber production. It states that, "No 

 attempt was made in our appraisal to take into account the real estate value 

 of these lands, their speculative or scenic value." Only 76,898 of the 82,397 

 acres were examined because some of the small areas were so widely separated 

 that the cost in time and money to visit them did not seem justified. How- 

 ever, over 93 per cent of the land was examined and the following is a 

 comparison of the values found with the actual cost to the Commonwealth. 



Basis 76,898 acres. 



U. S. FOREST SERVICE TOTAL COST TO COMMON- 



APPRAISAL WEALTH 



Land value and Land cost, improvements 



Improvements $660,000 and maintenance $575,428 



Average per acre 8.58 Average per acre 7.47 



Difference $1.11 per acre. 



When we consider that most of the land bought by the Federal govern- 

 ment for National Forests in New Hampshire and the Southern States is 

 rough mountain land, much of it far removed from markets and that these 

 appraisers adopted "as our yard stick or criterion the prices paid for lands 

 by the Federal government in its purchases for National Forests," we must 

 conclude that our state forests, most of which are not far from lumber 

 markets have been obtained at reasonable prices. Furthermore some of these 

 lands like the Mohawk Trail and the Bash Bish State Forests have a scenic 

 value far above their timber producing value, and cost proportionally more. 



In view of these facts the Association believes that the State Forest 

 movement has fully justified itself. The State should acquire 150,000 acres 

 more as State Forests because there is fully that much land now lying idle in 

 small towns which will not be reclaimed by other agencies. And since less 

 than one-third of the money authorized by the Act of 1920 has been used, 

 in the purchase and partial development of over 82,000 acres, we estimate 

 that 150,000 acres more may be acquired without further authorization of 

 appropriations. In order to round out the present purchase areas and make 

 the present forests economic administrative units, it will be necessary to 

 acquire intervening and adjoining lands: 



The Association has therefore presented to the General Court a bill to 

 amend the State Forest Act of 1920, by striking out the words, "one hundred 

 thousand acres," and substituting in place thereof the words "two hundred 

 and fifty thousand acres." 



NO APPROPRIATION IS NECESSARY 

 MERELY THE AUTHORIZATION TO EXTEND 

 THE AREA OF STATE FORESTS 



