28 SEVENTH REPURT OF THE 



present the Empire State leads all others by far in the number of its pulpmills and 

 amount of product ; but if it expects to hold its supremacy in this industry it must 

 make some prompt and intelligent provision for a future timber supply. 



In discussing this question some of our lumbermen and woodpulp operators 

 point to the great Canadian forests and the inexhaustible supply of spruce which 

 they claim is standing there. But the Province of Ontario has already put an 

 e.xport dut\- on logs and round timber that is intended to be prohibitory ; and the 

 Province of Quebec evidenth- will do the same whenever the supply of spruce in 

 New York and New England is gone. Our people then will not only have to go to 

 Canada for their raw material, but will have to take their mills and workmen with 

 them. The millions invested throughout New York in the great manufacturing 

 plants belonging to the kimber, pulp and paper business will be non-productive, 

 and these industries will be paralyzed. 



Indastrial Statistics. 



Aside from those engaged in our forest industries, but few people are aware 

 how largely these industries have conduced to the commercial supremacy of the 

 Empire State, and of the great necessity for making some prompt, intelligent pro- 

 vision for a future supply of the raw material on which their permanence depends. 



In the year 1900 the lumber industry of this State employed 8,616 men in the 

 sawmills and lumber camps, the total wages paid amounting to §3,537,916.* The 

 total capital invested in the business amounts to $20,236,352. The pulp and paper 

 mills employed 9,872 men, and paid out that j-ear $4,958,433 in wages. New York- 

 leads all other .States of the Union in the number of its paper and pulp mills, the 

 capital invested in these plants amounting to $37,349-390. 



Tree Plantino\ 



The limitations imposed by the forestry clause in the State Constitution prevent 

 the undertaking of any forestrv work similar to that carried on in European coun- 

 tries and at some places in the United States. The Department is prohibited by 

 law from harvesting the matured or decaying timber on the Preserve; no work of 

 forest improvement can be done if it involves the use of the axe in thinning or 

 pruning the v.oods ; neither can any timber be sold or removed from the windfalls 

 or fire-scorched areas, although the sale of such material would furnish no small 

 revenue. 



*Twelfth Census of the United States. 



