IG JOURNAL OF I'OKKSTRV 



tion so quickly after cutting that the humus will not disintegrate with 

 the result that the soil value of the site is not lessened to any marked 

 degree. Hardwood saplings soon restore the shade needed for water 

 retention. Ten or twelve years is usually enough where fire is kept 

 out to develop a vegeattion, providing there is shade so dense that 

 moisture conditions will approach if not exceed those of the area 

 before it was logged. 



Those whose chief interests in the forest are the wild life and 

 recreational value, and there are many such in the State, can find 

 little basis for the thought that logging is adverse to the propagation 

 of wild life. Those familiar with the habits of deer recognize quickly 

 that winter feed is after all the limiting factor in their propagation. 

 The virgin forest gives protection to the deer yet lacks the amount 

 of young growth which results from a regulated cutting. Beaver find 

 the best habitat in the second growth that follows a logging opera- 

 tion ; small game generally propagates more rapidly in the disturbed 

 habitat of the cut-over land. No forest land can at the same time 

 retain the characteristics of virgin wilderness, yield the maximum 

 .amount of lumber, and serve as the most desirable home for game. 

 I^xperience in the forest areas of Europe show that a properly man- 

 aged and a properly protected forest is vastly superior to a virgin 

 forest, both in the way of production of timber and in the production 

 of game. Unceasing efforts must be made in the way of education 

 before the owners of our State lands — the people— can be brought to 

 appreciate sound forest management. We must ally ourselves with 

 those interests concerned primarily with the wild life of the forest 

 and this can be accomplished by education and by compromise. Any 

 lengthy discussion of this subject is out of place in this paper. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF SILVICULTURF IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 



No plan of silvicultural management can be applied to the Adiron- 

 dack forest which does not recognize and define clearly forest condi- 

 tions and types now in existence. The ultimate c^e of the forest 

 must recognize details which are much too numerous for discussion in 

 a brief paper of this kind. 



No attempt will be made to enlarge upon or change either in defini- 

 tion or nomenclature the four main types now recognized, namely, 

 swamp, spruce, flat, hardwood, and upper slope. 



The boundary line between the spruce flat and hardwood type is 

 most confusing and needs discussion. In point of topography the 



