FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 2 1 



discovered almost invariably that there was a surplus, that the lot "overrun " the 

 acreage called for in the various deeds, and on which the assessment is made. 



This condition is largely due to the loose methods of work in use by the old 

 surveyors who made the original allotments. They used a drag chain, and ran the 

 lines as fast as they could, some of them being paid by the number of acres sur- 

 veyctl instead of by the days worked. Whenever, in their haste or carelessness, 

 they failed to tally a chain there was a corresponding increase of unrecorded area ; 

 and, in some instances, as stated in their field notes, the colonial surveyors "threw 

 in a few chains for good measure." 



It would be difificult to estimate, even approximately, how far such methods 

 have contributed to the difference between the assessed and actual acreage ; but a 

 careful study of the facts, together with many years experience in these land statis- 

 tics, leads me to believe that the lots will, in the aggregate, overrun the old surveys 

 at least five per cent ; and that while the officially assessed acreage of the Adiron- 

 dack Park is placed here at 3,226,144 acres, the actual acreage is not far from 

 3,400,000 acres. 



I^and Classification. 



For several years there has been a constant need of some specific information as 

 to the amount of merchantable timber left in the Adirondack Park, and the area of 

 virgin forest that remains ; also, some definite statistics as to the acreage embraced 

 in each of the various classes of land. This becomes necessary, not only as a 

 matter of general information regarding the industrial resources of the region, but 

 also in order that the Department may have a proper knowledge of the various 

 kinds of land intrusted to its care and management. 



This work would have been undertaken long ago had there been anything in our 

 forestry law providing for the appointment of competent foresters to carry it on. 

 Fortunately, at the last session of the Legislature a law was enacted — chapter y^6, 

 Laws of 1901 — which enabled the Commission to commence this important part 

 of its forestry work and complete it, so far as the more important details were 

 concerned. 



.\fter a careful study of the subject it was decided that, in making the classifi- 

 cation of the various kinds of land, it would be advantageous to classif_\- under the 

 same descriptive terms used by the State Comptroller in his circular letter of 

 instructions to the town assessors; viz., forest, lumbered, waste, burned, denuded, 

 wild meadows, improved and water. The advantage in this arrangement was that 

 the assessment roll of each forest town, as required by law, is filed each year in this 



