The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-02-04

a work to devote any time to such pros cautions, and the law should provide for the hiring of a lawyer through the attorney generals office during two or three months whose chief duty 1t would be to convict some of these of lenders. A few convictions in various parts of the state would do more than anything else to stop forest fires. He should also bring legal procedure against the selectmen of towns who persistently neglect to appoint ward ems.
 SEEDLINGS SUPPLIED AT COST
 PRICE.
 With the increased safety which im- proved fire protection will bring there is bound to be a greater interest in for estry and especially forest planting. In fact last spuring about seventy-five thousand white pine seedlings were planted by private owners in various parts of the state.O One of the chief ditfi- culties in the way of planting has al ways been the expense of forest seed lings, which have never been raised in any great quantities in this country. While free seed or plant distribution by governments has unfortunately proved failure, it seems wise for the state to provide seedlings to owners at cost price provided the owners will fol- low the forester's directions, Last year We secured bids for one hundred thou sand seedlings from the large nursery men of the country. D. Hill of Dundee, H., offered two year white pine seed- lings at $5.75 per thousand, and the or der was given him. These were dis tributed to land owners in lots not less than one thousand at cost price plus express, and some such arrangement will be made this year.
 STATIONS FOREST
 NURSERY.
 In Rainbow the Experiment. Station has large nursery establishment, from which about five hundred thou sand seedlins will be ready for sale at low cost a year from this spring. They will probably not cost over three dollars per thousand, and being raised in the state, will be better adapted for home use than those imported from some distance.
 FORESTRY EXAMPLES vALUA,
 BILE.
 Through talks to farmers granges and other meetings by distributing lt- erature on the subject and the sale Of forest seedlings, unquestionably there will be a growing interest in forest work. But there is no way of intesest- ing the average farmer equal to that by example. When the stations plan tations were started at Windsor all the farmers of the neighborhood scoffed at the idea of planting trees on sand bar rens. Now after five years they have ceased to laugh at the work and are inquiring where seedlings may be pur- chased.
 In Union the farmers have good req son to understand the proftableness of pine raising, since the chief value of their farms Is for the timber on them SD when the state purchased there last year three hundred acres of abandoned farms and planted twenty thousand seedlings, interest was at once awak- ened and undoubtedly much planting will be done there this year by private owners.
 The state owns in Portland one thou sand acres of sprout land which is systematically being thinned. This work is also interesting the people of that region.
 STATE FORESTS IN EACH cOUN-
 TY DEsIRABLl.
 Now if there were state forests of one thousand acres or more In each county the people of the whole state would be reached in a way that is not possible by any other method. The limit allowed by the state for such land purchases Is four dollars an acre, and it would be perfectly easy to pro- cure one thousand acres in each of the eight counties for this price. As a BIENNIAL APPROPRIATION OF
 sic, ,000 ASKED.
 start toward this the Connecticut For estry association asks for an appro- priation by the general assembly of ten thousand dollars for the coming two years instead of two thousand dollars, which has been allotted by the past three legislatures. This must be looked upon as an investment. rather than an expenditure.
 STATE FORESTS ARE INVEST
 MENTS.
 There is little doubt that money put into forest land now while 1t is cheap will yield at least six per cent interest The one thousand acres at Portland which was purchased for about seven teen hundred dollars, could be sold to- day for two thousand dollars. As the state pays taxes on It's forests the towns gain both directly and indirectly through the improved forest conditions and the labor which is used from the town in it's management.
 The law should also be amended SC as to allow the state forester to accept in behalf of the state donations of land for forestry purposes. It is believed that the carrying out of the above re- commendations will greatly improve the forestry situation in Connecticut, <, REGISTRATION OF TITLES.
 There is, however, one other subject which I wish to speak of, though it is not directly a forestry problem, and that is the question of registration of land titles When any one buys land in this state he must spend considera ble of his own time or money in first ascertaining if the title is clear. II makes no difference how many times a piece of land is sold. Each time the purchaser must assure himself that the title is good, This amounts to very heavy tax on land purchasers and is relatively heavier for small pieces of land. For many ten-acre pieces of land purchased by the state for twenty dol1qrS az rnurh as sevan 5plIorr I,o