WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



327 



fire laws were added to and amended during the session of 1907 

 and again in 1909. The operation of the law so far has tended 

 toward more efficient control of forest fires and promises to re- 

 duce to the minimum losses resulting from this cause. 



The State has acquired by purchase forest reserves in 3 

 counties, Tolland, Hartford and Middlesex, aggregating about 

 1,360 acres. In answer to an inquiry directed to Mr. Samuel 

 N. Spring, State Forester and State Forest Fire Warden, he 

 makes the following reply: ^'It is the purpose to establish a 

 reserve in each county of the state that there may be good 

 sized blocks of forest in each county that are handled under the 

 principles of forestry to demonstrate the value of this work to 

 the private owner. The law originally provided that not more 

 than $2.50 per acre should be paid for this land. This was 

 subsequently changed to a maximum price of $4.00 an acre. 

 The largest body of land acquired by the state is 1,066 acres in 

 the Town of Portland, Middlesex County, at an average cost of 

 less than $2.00 an acre." The land generally acquired has 

 been recently cut-over forest of young growth, so that profit- 

 able returns are not yet obtainable. In the Middlesex forest 

 there are, however, some lots containing timber 25 to 30 years 

 old in which experimental thinnings have been made and the 

 products disposed of profitably. The state forest in Simsbury, 

 Hartford County, consists of purely waste, brush-covered land 

 which prior to being acquired by the state was annually burned 

 over. Since it was taken by the state no fires have occurred. 

 In order to bring the several forest reserves into a state of the 

 greatest possible produtivity the state is dependent, first, on 

 protection from fire by a well-equipped and well-paid fire 

 warden service ; second, on aid to natural reproduction by occa- 

 sional "improvement thinnings;" and third, on the planting 

 of valuable species of trees on unoccupied lands. 



In making thinnings the trees that are especially favored 

 in Connecticut are chestnut, white pine, oak, hickory and white 

 ash. Those that are usually removed are gray birch, red cedar, 

 ironwood, sassafras, and some others. 



Planting of trees, principally tvhite pine, is being carried 

 on by the state, by water companies and by private land owners. 

 The principal plantations by private owners have been made 



