Within the year 1930 the New York Conservation

the burning is done the State obtains the consent of owners of roadside property.

for development as production forests, under provisions of the Hewitt law of 1929. The cost averaged $3.70 per acre. The land acquired consists of 48 areas, ranging from 500 acres to more than 3,600 acres, in 14 counties. All the areas to which title has been approved have been planted, the planting requiring more than 7,000,000 trees. Planting costs per 1,000 trees ranged from $2.05 for trees planted with the use of a machine to $7.31 for trees planted by hand. All the new plantations have been protected against forest fires with fire lines consisting of six furrows each. The 45.27 miles of fire line required cost $22.05 per mile. To protect the plantations of northern white pine from the blister rust, currant and gooseberry bushes were removed from 2,430 acres of land in the vicinity of such plantations at a cost of about 50 cents per acre.

In the year ending September 30, 1930, New York enlarged its State forest preserve by 40,142 acres, including 22,242 acres in the Adirondacks and 17,900 acres in the Catskills. These lands cost on the average $9.33 per acre. The outstanding purchase of the year in the Catskills is a tract of more than 2,000 acres including the so-called Westkill or Deer Notch.

Fires Few along Cleared Roadsides in California

By J. H. PRICE, United States Forest Service An exchange of forest land between the Federal Government and the State of California was recently completed through which the State obtains a consolidated block of 8,973 acres along the western boundary of the Lassen National Forest, in Shasta County. The State gives in exchange a somewhat greater area consisting of scattered school sections within the national forest boundaries.

Since school lands were used to acquire the Shasta County area, the area can not yet be considered strictly a State forest. It is proposed to introduce legislation to pay into the State school funds the amount of the appraised value of the school lands involved in the exchange, and thus make it possible to establish a State forest in the strictest sense of the term. If such legislation is approved the State will have a forest property of a permanent character and one that can be largely extended to the north, west, and south, since the adjacent lands in these directions are all privately owned.

The Shasta County area has been carefully mapped and cruised. It is estimated that there is 100,000,000 feet of merchantable timber on the area. Most of this timber is concentrated on a small portion of the block,

thus constituting a perfectly merchantable stand. The

remainder of the block is made up chiefly of reproducing brush lands. These brush fields are the result of fires that occurred prior to the period of protection, many of the fires probably antedating the coming of white men to the country. The young growth is coming in very fast on account of the protection given the area during the past 20 years, and much of it is now reaching pole size. With continued protection, the forest should regenerate itself over the entire area without planting.

The merchantable stand consists in a mixture of western yellow pine, sugar pine, incense cedar, and