out fruit, shade or forest trees along the public road on•his prem ises. This also states the distance apart such trees are to be planted. This is one of the first acts of our State to remedy the immense damage done to our forests, and is also the first to allow an abatement of taxes for tree planting. ' The next move was made in 1887 when an act was passed pay ing to the owners of land "devoted to the planting and maintenance of woods having not less than 1,200 trees to the acre, a sum equal to ninety per cent. of all the taxes assessed upon the same land. This to be paid for ten years after the land has been planted as a forest ; the second decade the payment is reduced to eighty per cent., and during the third and final decade to fifty per cent. After the first period the owner is allowed to reduce the number of growing trees to six hundred, and thus be compensated for the increase of tax to be paid. Three minor acts are next recorded. They provide for the pre vention of the spread of a disease of the peach tree, called the "yellows," and fpr the recovery of damage to trees along the public highway, cut or mutilated by telegraph or telephone wires. In 1893 was passed an "Act creating a forestry commission, and specifying the duties thereof." It is to this law that we owe the great advance made in the last few years in this work. Gov ernor Pattison immediately' appointed William F. Shunk and Dr. Joseph T. Rothrock members of the State Forestry Commission; and they held their positions until the abolishment of the offices, and have been working actively to find some method to stop the dreadful waste of valuable timber. This commission issued circulars calling attention to the wan tonness with which we destroy trees, and endeavored to show to property owners the great amount of good that forested land produces. It attempted to persuade farmers to plant trees along their fences, upon exposed hilltops, in swamp lands and in corners where nothing but weeds grow. It published, as part of an agricultural report, a list of trees which would grow in this State, and which would greatly increase the value of the land. Farmers, in general, are afraid to give up any of their cleared Forestry in Pennsylvania.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers