FORESTRY IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



223 



permit leasing of camp sites. Like all 

 constitutional amendments however, it 

 must be brought before a second legis- 

 lature and then run the gauntlet of the 

 people's vote before it can become active 

 law.^ The proposed amendment has re- 

 ceived large attention within the state 

 and without. If the prohibition should 

 be removed and the state be given con- 

 trol of the management of its forests 

 on the principles of scientific reforesta- 

 tion, culture and cutting, such as is add- 

 ing to the economic advancement of our 

 national forests, New York State will 

 undoubtedly be assured a steadily in- 

 creasing prosperity for the future. 



The state situation is one that calls for 

 much constructive work with large 

 appropriations to carry it through, and 

 the work will later yield sustained finan- 

 cial and other profitable returns just in 

 proportion to the amounts expended in 

 this preliminary preparation. New York 

 used to be a great lumber-producing 

 state. It was the greatest in the nation 

 in 1850. It has now dropped to twenty- 

 fourth rank. On the other hand New 

 York is at present the greatest wood- 

 consuming state in the Union, requiring 

 approximately two billion board feet 

 every year in the wood-using industries. 

 It is thus easy to understand that we 

 must annually send outside of the state 

 for something approaching thirty mil- 



> This will mean that the amendment must pass 

 a majority vote of the new legislature of January 

 1915 and then be adopted or rejected by the 

 people's vote in the fall of 1915, if adopted be- 

 coming active law the following January. It 

 chances however that this fall sees the election of 

 delegates to a constitutional convention to meet 

 next May — since the original constitution of 

 New Yoric State provides that a convention shall 

 be elected at least once in twenty years for a re- 

 drafting of constitutional law and the last such 

 convention met in 1894. Thus it is a dramatic 

 moment for forestry interests in that they can 

 work for an active law allowing use of state lands 

 and giving state-wide fire protection through two 

 bodies, the regular legislature of 1915 and the con- 

 stitutional convention, the latter like the former 

 having power to pass a constitutional amend- 

 ment directly to the people's vote if it so desires. 



lion dollars' worth of lumber — for 

 Douglas fir, western cedar and redwood 

 from across the whole breadth of the 

 continent; for yellow pine and southern 

 cypress from the Gulf States. 



The point is that New York can be 

 made self-supporting in its wood indus- 

 tries. No state in the Union is more 

 advantageously equipped for profitable 

 lumber production, in climate, rainfall, 

 soil, facilities for marketing and amount 

 of lands more suitable for tree crops than 

 for agriculture. The estimate is that from 

 twelve million to fourteen million acres 

 in New York (seven millions of which are 

 idle lands on the farms of the state) can 

 eventually be given over to forest growth 

 because not suitable for other purposes, 

 while experts personally experienced in 

 the study of the forests of Europe main- 

 tain that fifty years of the right care 

 ought to make many of our forests, the 

 Adirondack region for instance, compare 

 favorably or even surpass the Black 

 Forest or any of the famous forests 

 abroad. 



With these facts in mind and with the 

 knowledge that to-day in our state re- 

 serves even, immense areas are wholly 

 cut over or burned and others are covered 

 sparsely with trees of little value, review 

 the situation in the state. Look ahead 

 at what can and should be. Look at the 

 present condition. Surely we are at the 

 very beginning of the work, with little 

 done except tree planting in relatively 

 small amount, only enough to serve well 

 as guide in future work, even though 

 greater than has been done by any other 

 state, and in addition a considerably 

 increased protection of our forests from 

 fire — although here only of the state 

 forests for there is no state-wide fire 

 law. Something over fifty observation 

 towers have been built in the Adirondack 

 and Catskill regions, on mountain heights 

 from which the country through a radius 



