1889.] KE"W YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 67 



exception of the Eaquette, are owned by private citizens or cor- 

 porations, over which the State has no control. 



The forest product taken from the territory of the head-waters 

 and tributaries of the Hudson last year aggregated in value not 

 less than $4,000,000 according to the estimates made, and this 

 is less than one-third of the output from the whole region. 

 Preparations are making for a larger cutting in the coming year. 



T. B. Harrison, Corresponding Secretary of the American 

 Forestry Congress, a prominent writer on forestry, has recently 

 been making a careful study, on the ground, of the condition 

 of the Adirondack forests. In a letter written from the North 

 "Woods in August last, and published in Forest and Stream, 

 he says : — 



"The various railroads which penetrate the wilderness are 

 being extended, and the destruction of the forests will, in con- 

 sequence, proceed much more rapidly than heretofore. There has 

 been a great deal of very indefinite writing and talk about the 

 Adirondack forests, some of it misleading because not based on 

 any considerable knowledge of the facts of the actual condition 

 and course of things in the woods. From three-fourths to four- 

 fifths of the original forest has already been cut off, and hun- 

 dreds of square miles, hundreds of thousands of acres, have 

 been utterly denuded and ruined by the burning and washing 

 away of the soil, so that centuries must pass before those 

 "vast tracts of bare and sun-scorched rocks can again produce 

 valuable trees. Any rational or fruitful way of thinking of the 

 matter must embrace a recognition of these facts. Whatever 

 we may desire, whatever ' might have been ' if things had been 

 entirely different, no amount of rhetoric or sentiment will avail 

 to make the facts other than they are." 



I have thus directed your attention to the principal provisions 

 of our laws relating to forestry, and to the condition and alarm- 

 ing outlook of the Adirondack region. 



I think I have conclusively shown that our present laws, as 

 administered by the Forest Commission, have largely failed of 

 their purpose, and the test of nearly four years' trial is quite 

 long enough to form a reasonable conclusion. 



I am of the opinion, too, that our forestry laws, with a few im- 

 portant changes and additions, are admirably adapted to our 

 needs; and it is to these additions and changes that I now desire 

 to call your particular attention. 



1. The State should have the absolute right and control 

 over not less than 2,000,000 acres, in addition to her present 

 holdings, of the lands constituting the central portion of the 

 Adirondack water-shed. This territory should be forever dedi- 

 cated to the purposes of a Forest Preserve, which are not incon- 



