_Forestry among the States._--Among the states forestry has hardly reached the stage of practical application on the ground. New York holds 1,500,000 acres of forest land. It has a commission to care for its forest preserve, and to protect the forest land throughout the state from fire. The constitution of the state, however, prohibits the cutting of timber on state land, and thus confines the work entirely to protection of the forest and to the planting of waste areas. Pennsylvania is at present showing the most efficient activity in working out a forest policy. It has state forests of 820,000 acres, a good fire law more and more satisfactorily enforced, and eight nurseries for growing planting material. In 1905, 160,000 white pine seedlings were set out. It has also a school for forest rangers, to be employed on the state forests, and it has just established a state professional school of forestry. Twenty-six of the states have regularly appointed forest officers, six have carried on studies of forest conditions in co-operation with the forest service, and there is scarcely one which is not actively interested in forestry. Laws, generally good, to prevent damage from forest fires, have been enacted by practically all the states, but their enforcement has unfortunately been lax. Public sentiment, however, is making rapid progress. Among the best laws are those of Maine, New Hampshire, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The New York law, for example, provides for the appointment of one or more fire-wardens in each town of the counties in which damage by fire is especially to be feared. In other counties supervisors of towns are _ex-officio_ fire-wardens. A chief fire-warden has general supervision of their work. The wardens, half of the cost of whose services is paid by the state, receive compensation only for the time actually employed in fighting fires. They may command the service of any citizen to assist them. Setting fire to woods or waste lands belonging to the state or to another, if such fire results in loss, is punishable by a fine not exceeding $250 or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, and damages are provided for the person injured. Since fire is beyond question the most dangerous enemy of forests in the United States, the measures taken against it are of vital importance. The following table shows the amount of forest land held by the different states, and by the territory of Hawaii:-- _Area of State Forest Reservations, 1907._ Connecticut 1,360 acres Hawaii 117,532 " Indiana 2,000 " Maryland 3,540 " Michigan 39,000 " Minnesota 42,800 " New Jersey 2,474 " New York 1,439,998 " Pennsylvania 820,000 " Wisconsin 254,072 "