Tree Planting. 



[Extract from the Report of the Assistant Superintendent.] 



Plantation No. 1. 



LAST spring I was engaged, in company witli Forester Bryant,* in making an 

 examination of lands in tlie Catskills preparatory to tlieir purchase by the 

 State. 



We were deeply impressed by the burned and barren condition of some of the 

 prominent mountain tops and slopes, which are a source of disappointment to the 

 large and increasing number of people who come here for summer enjoyment and 

 mountain scen.ery. As a result of this denudation of the mountain slopes the 

 brooks, where the speckled trout once found ?. natural home, have become in places 

 a succession of mere pools separated by the dry rocky bed of the once unfailing 

 stream. 



These unsightly areas are not due to any lack of soil or suitable forest conditions, 

 but are the result of fires, which in the old days were often deliberately set, after 

 the cutting down of the great stand of hemlock, from which only the bark was 

 taken ; in fact, it is a legend of the locality that the boys used to celebrate the 

 Fourth of July and election by burning a mountain. 



From a close examination of some of these burned places it appears that nature 

 does not reclothe them directly with valuable species. Ferns, pin cherries, and 

 trees of inferior value come up first, to be followed after a lapse of time by an 

 unevenly distributed growth of more valuable trees. A long period of years is 

 often necessary for the slow change of composition of the forest, and the return 

 of valuable species. 



First, poplar, with light seeds easily carried by the wind, and pin cherry, the 

 seeds of which are probably carried by the birds, come in from a long distance. 



* Mr. Ralph C. Bryant, F. E., the first man graduated in the N. Y. State College of Forestry, to 

 whom the writer is indebted for assistance in making the plantation and in preparing this report. 

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