THE ADIKONDACK PROBLEM 53 



provement be maintained and increased by requiring all members of the forest 

 force to pass a Civil Service examination before appointment, and by giving 

 permanent employment to as many men as possible. Some temporary fire 

 guards will always be required, but men employed during only a part of the 

 year take less interest in their work and render poorer service than members 

 of a regular force who expect to follow one line of work during their lives. 

 Without permanent employment, the State cannot compete for the best men 

 with other employers, and will have to take what they leave. The thorough 

 enforcement of the top lopping law alone would require the services during 

 the winter of the larger part of the present force. 



The Civil Service examination for such men can and should be made 

 thoroughly practical by bearing on their training and experience as woodsmen 

 and fire fighters, and their local knowledge of the country in which they are 

 to work, and by actual test of physical ability and woodcraft conducted in 

 the forest. This practice, applied in the National Forests of the Unite'1 States 

 has contributed more than any other single cause to the efficiency of the field 

 force. 



The salaries of the patrolmen are too low. They should be increased 

 from $G0 a month, as at present, to |75 a month, with the certainty of 

 reasonable promotion for good work. In every practicable case, appoint- 

 ments to higher positions should be made by promotion and not by the selec- 

 tion of men outside the present force. The title ''patrolman" should be 

 changed to "forest ranger," for the duties are very much wider than fire patrol 

 alone. 



The Adirondack Park contains not less than 120,000 acres of forest land 

 so completely denuded by fire that planting is necessary. In many places 

 not onl}' the forest but the soil itself has been burned entirely away and 

 the bare rock is exposed. There is also about 50,000 acres on which planting 

 is desirable to reinforce the present sparse young growth. It is most fortunate 

 that the State is admirably prepared for the planting work. Its forest 

 nurseries, under the direction of Mr. C. R. Pettis, Superintendent of State 

 Forests, have become models both in the quality of the stock produced and 

 the low cost of growing it, while the forest plantations set out by the State 

 are among the most successful in any country. 



During the last few years, very little forest planting has been done on 

 the State land, because the sale of seedlings to private owners at cost has 

 taken nearly the entire product of the nurseries. Private owners should be 

 able to buy seedlings from the State, but it is at least equally important that 

 the State should begin on an adequate scale and without further delay its 

 own great task in forest planting. For this purpose the capacity of the 

 nurseries has recently been increased to produce about eleven million young 

 trees a year. At least 5,000 acres a year should be planted up. At this rate, 

 if no more land is devastated by fire, it will still require a quarter of a 

 century to reforest the denuded State lands within the Adirondack Park. 



