Henry R. Dietrich had been in the real estate business thirty-one years. He had lived in Mount Forest from 1873, when he was four years old, until he was twelve, and went to school there. Mount Forest, a subdivision of about 300 acres, was made by witness' father and his associates in 1872 or 1873. Witness owns property there and has been in touch with it all the time. Archer avenue had been a stone road for twenty-five years, varying in kind and condition. Witness had sold property there. One tract of 40 acres immediately south of the Kean land he sold in 1912, but he was not permitted to state the price because too remote. He valued the Kean land at $247 per acre. The witness was very familiar with the location of the land, the road, the surrounding country and villages, and with transportation to and from Spring Forest. In his opinion the highest and best use of the property at the time the petition was filed, July 6, 1920, was for picnic and amusement purposes. It is high land and desirable for residence purposes, but because of transportation facilities is not available for that use. The witness gave to some extent a history of Mount Forest, which was laid out because it was believed it would be attractive for summer homes. The railroads refused to give the place a suburban service and the scheme failed. There was then no electric line there and no paved roads. Based on his experience and knowledge of the locality and land available for homes in that vicinity the witness testified he did not consider the highest and best use to which the property was adapted July 6, 1920, was for residence purposes; that while the property was adaptable for that purpose, if you could not get people to go there it is not available. The witness testified at great length, and said his opinion as to the value of the land was based on sales he had made and his general experience in the business.

Sidney T. Hart, a witness for the appellee, resided at Mount Forest thirty years and had been in the real estate

and building business in Spring Forest about twenty years. He knew the Kean property and lived about a mile and a half southwesterly of it. The Chicago-Joliet electric line was built in Archer avenue about 1900. To go to Chicago on that line required a change to street cars at Archer and Cicero avenues. He valued the land at $250 per acre, and expressed the opinion its highest and best value was for amusement park purposes. He gave it as his opinion that the electric road could handle seven or eight thousand people in a half day, and said while the property was adaptable to subdivision into home sites it was not adaptable to subdividing into small lots.

Charles D. Richards, a witness for appellee, testified he had been in the real estate business since 1887. In 1905 he was president of the Chicago Real Estate Board and had had much experience in valuing real estate. He was acquainted with the Kean property and placed its value at $250 an acre. He testified the ultimate use of the property would be as residence property, but that the development would not warrant that use at present because there was no market for it. The value he placed on it was its present value for residence purposes.

H. A. Mauritzon testified for appellee that he had been in the real estate business thirty-eight years; that his business covered Chicago and Cook county; that he had dealt in all kinds of property and had large experience in appraising the value of real estate for the city of Chicago, park boards, railroads, boards of education and the forest preserve district. He has examined the Kean property four times. It has a frontage on Archer avenue of 2156 feet and of 1200 feet on Kean avenue. Argo, a town of 4400 inhabitants, is on Archer avenue at Sixty-third street, about three miles from the Kean land. East of Argo is Clearing, with a subdivided area of 2700 acres. Just north of the Kean property are 50 acres which were subdivided in 1884. Mount Forest (part of the present village of Spring For

est) is immediately west of the Kean property and is a subdivision of 300 acres, laid out about 1872. Just west of Mount Forest is Willow Springs,-a subdivision of 15 acres. The witness had examined the property on Kean avenue sold by the witness Moore, and said it was diagonally across Kean avenue, at the southeast corner of the Kean land. It had a few trees on it but most of them had been cut off, and part of it is now used as a cemetery. The witness had appraised a 120-acre tract immediately south of the Kean land and other tracts in that neighborhood. He testified he had made a careful examination of the Kean tract and that its value was $275 an acre. He testified the 50 acres immediately north of the Kean property which are subdivided into lots are vacant and unimproved. He was not cross-examined.

Appellant introduced proof that the population of Chicago in 1873 was 380,000 and in 1920 2,701,212; that there was a maximum of 35,000 acres in Cook county available for forest preserve purposes and that approximately 28,000 acres of it is forest land; that up to July, 1920, 15,992 acres had been acquired for the Forest Preserve District.

John Kean, the husband of appellant, after describing the land and the transportation facilities, testified the land on July 6, 1920, was worth $232,000,―an average of $2000 an acre,—and that it was best adapted for residence purposes. He owned a farm a mile and a half from Spring Forest and property in Chicago. He sold a tract August 22, 1919, fronting 650 feet on Archer avenue and the same on Kean avenue, containing 10 acres, for $25,000. His wife sold a half acre on Kean avenue January 1, 1920, to Wunderlich for $1000. He sold a quarter of an acre adjoining it to the same purchaser for $600. He also sold another tract of a half acre fronting on Kean avenue to the same purchaser May 30, 1920, for $1000. The 10-acre tract had been occupied for some time previous to the sale

for a road-house and beer garden. The purchaser owned the buildings on it. The witness testified he lived on the property in an eight-room house, and his farmer also occupied an eight-room residence. The property Wunderlich bought was partly for a home and partly for the storage of monuments. Photographs of a number of residences in Spring Forest were introduced as tending to show the improvement of the property. The witness testified there were twenty-five houses in Spring Forest of the same general character, and including stores, restaurants, saloons, offices and residences there are about forty-five buildings in the village.

William I. Cronin testified he owned a home and lived on Archer avenue, east of Kean avenue. He had known the Kean property sixty years. There is a cement road on two sides of it and much travel out there, especially on Sundays and picnic days. He testified the Kean property was valuable for subdivision, for amusement park, deer park, or for most anything, and that its value was between $2000 and $2500 an acre. There is one house on the 50acre subdivision on the north side of Archer avenue. There was another house there, but it burned down.

Mrs. Charles A. Coey testified she lived on Ninety-fifth street, near Kean avenue, and owned 102 acres just east of the avenue. She had known the locality and the Kean property twelve years. The best use it is adapted to is for home sites, and the witness testified its value was about $2500 an acre. She based her opinion on the value she placed on her own property and the location.

Harry Goldstine testified he had been in the real estate business twenty-four years and handled all classes of real estate in all parts of the city and county. For twenty years he had specialized in appraising property for individuals, corporations, railroad companies and municipalities. He had been chairman of the Chicago Real Estate Board valuation committee, and as a member and chairman had val

ued forty million dollars' worth of property in Chicago and Cook county. He had examined the Kean property and the transportation facilities. He was also familiar with the housing conditions in Chicago and the demand for apartments and homes. He testified the highest and best use of the Kean property was for subdivision into home-site tracts running from half an acre to five acres in size, to be sold to prospective builders of homes. He, in connection with Snelling and Root, two other real estate men, had made a plat of what he said was a practical subdivision for that purpose. The plat was exhibited and introduced and showed a subdivision of the land into sixty-five lots ranging in size from half an acre to five acres. He testified that if sold out as a subdivision on July 6, 1920, it would in his opinion have brought $179,574.50; that the expense of subdividing and marketing the lots would amount to $69,440 and the net value of the land would be $110,134. The lowest value he placed on any lot, as shown by the proposed plat, was $1250 and the highest $13,500.

Snelling and Root, each of whom had been in the real estate business over thirty years and had had large experience in dealing with property in Cook county, both in and out of the city of Chicago, placed the same value on the property for subdivision into home sites as testified to by Goldstine.

It is first contended by appellant the court erred in not dismissing the petition on the preliminary hearing for failure of appellee to prove the material allegations of the petition, which were put in issue by a general traverse. The act under which appellee was organized confers authority on the commissioners to acquire by gift, grant, devise, purchase or condemnation any and all lands within the district, which embraces the whole of Cook county, "containing one or more natural forests or parts thereof, for the purpose of creating, laying out and maintaining such forest preserves as it may deem proper and desirable." The act pro