276 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it, are to have the care, custody, control, 

 and superintendence of the forest preserve ; 

 maintain and protect the existing forests 

 and promote the further growth of forests ; 

 also to have charge of the public interests 

 of the State with regard to forests and tree- 

 planting, and especially with regard to for- 

 est fires in every part of the State ; and it 

 is given power to make these functions 

 effective. The forest preserve of the State 

 consists of various tracts of State lands in 

 eleven counties in the Adirondack region 

 and three counties in the Catskills. The 

 part known as the Adirondack region covers 

 a territory circular in its general outline 

 and about one hundred miles in diameter, 

 having its center near the northeast corner 

 of Hamilton County. "With but little ex- 

 ception, it is an unbroken wilderness, reach- 

 ing from Lake Champ] ain westward to the 

 valley of the Black River. That part of 

 the Catskills which belongs in the forest 

 preserve is situated about forty miles west 

 of the Hudson, and occupies the northwest 

 corner of Ulster County, together with parts 

 of the adjacent counties. The Adirondack 

 region proper contains more than four mill- 

 ion acres, of which the State has acquired title 

 to more than eight hundred thousand acres. 

 In the Catskill region the State owns more 

 than five hundred thousand acres. These 

 amounts do not include the county lands in 

 the Adirondacks and Catskills. Not all the 

 land is forest-land. Much of it is aban- 

 doned and partly cleared farming-lands, 

 much burned lands, and a large percentage 

 of it abandoned timber-lands through which 

 the lumberman has passed, taking all of the 

 valuable soft timber and much of the hard. 

 As years go on, and these woods are pro- 

 tected from spoliation and damage, the 

 young, soft-timber trees will grow up and 

 the forest assume its primitive condition. 

 The rest of the territory is clothed with the 

 dense original growth. Many good roads 

 traverse the region, but few railroads pene- 

 trate the wilderness to any considerable ex- 

 tent, and none cross it. The forest preserve 

 i-; mail.- up of many disconnected plots, more 

 in some counties than in others ; plots rang- 

 ing from a few acres up to many thousands, 

 BUrronnded usually by lands owned by indi- 

 viduals, and in many cases inaccessible by 

 In other cases individual lands arc 



entirely surrounded by State lands. Among 

 the causes which tend to decrease the area 

 of the forest-lands within the counties of 

 the forest preserve are mentioned fires — 

 the most frequent and the most destructive 

 of them all — windfalls and land-slides, lum- 

 bering, tanning — which is the occasion of 

 considerable waste — manufacture of wood- 

 pulp, charcoal-burning and roasting ores, 

 railroad-building, and farming. Although 

 the forestry enterprise was at one time an 

 object of opposition from the people of the 

 Adirondack counties, a better acquaintance 

 with the subject has wrought a modification 

 in their feelings, and the report mentions 

 as a matter worthy of note and congratu- 

 lation that the commission is to-day receiv- 

 ing a hearty and intelligent support from 

 the lumbermen and land-owners of the Adi- 

 rondack region and the Catskills. Append- 

 ed to the report are a list of the books and 

 magazine articles pertaining to forestry to 

 be found in ten of the large public libraries 

 of the country, and a list of lands in the 

 forest preserve, with a map of the Adiron- 

 dack lands. 



RErORT OF TIIE UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGIST 



for the Year 1885. By Charles V. Ri- 

 ley. Washington : Government Print- 

 ing-Office. Pp. 150, with Piates. 



In the report we find an essay on silk- 

 culture, followed by notices, under the head- 

 ing of " Miscellaneous Insects," of the de- 

 structive locusts or grasshoppers ; the peri- 

 odical cicada (or seventeen-year locust); the 

 leather beetle, a new enemy to boots and 

 shoes; the garden web -worm, the dark- 

 sided cut-worm, the strawberry weevil, and 

 the pear-midge. The " reports of agents " 

 include notices respecting locusts at vari- 

 ous points, insects affecting the fall wheat, 

 the causes of destruction of the ev< 

 and other forest trees in Northern New 

 England, and experiments in apiculture. 

 Under the latter head Mr. Nelson W. Mo- 

 Lain records, among other matters, experi- 

 ments which he made to ascertain wh< Iher 

 bees do harm to fruit. His bees were 

 tempted with grapes, while other food was 

 withdrawn from them, and the conditions 

 (1 f a Bevere drought were produced upon 

 them. " They daily visited the fruit in great 

 inn,!, rs, and labored diligently to i 



