1889.] XEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 69 



of causes, either criminal or civil, in any county of the Forest 

 Preserve, at the option of the Forest Commissioner. 



4. The Legislature should provide for the establishment 

 and generous support of a scientific school of forestry in con- 

 nection with some leading educational institution in the State, 

 — as, e.g., Cornell University, — with a thorough curriculum of 

 studies, and a corps of instructors eminent for learning in their 

 several departments. 



There should be a further provision that the graduates of this 

 school shall have the preference to be employed in the State for- 

 estry department, in such position as the Commissioner shall 

 determine and the service may require. 



The Forest Commissioner should be the head director of this 

 school. 



5. The Legislature should provide for the establishment of 

 a Forest-Experiment Station in connection with every Agricul- 

 tural College of the State, and these should be under the gen- 

 eral direction of the Forest Commissioner. 



With these amendments and additions to our forestry laws, 

 and some minor amendments that will naturally follow, and with 

 the right man appointed Forest Commissioner and clothed with 

 all the dignity and authority which such a position demands, we 

 may reasonably expect an administration of the forestry inte- 

 rests of New York that will prove the glory of the State and the 

 just admiration of the nation. 



DISCUSSIOJS". 



At the conclusion of Judge Higley's paper, the subject was 

 thrown open for remarks ; a number of members and visitors 

 took part, among them Messrs. L. E. Chittenden, E. B. 

 SouTHWicK, Wm. H. Hale, D. S. Martin, Judge Higley, 

 Prof. F. W. Hooper, and the President. 



Mr. Chittenden remarked at length on the changes which had 

 already taken place in the Adirondack regions, and likewise in 

 that of the Green Mountains of Vermont, in consequence of the 

 forest-destruction. In his view, one of the most ruinous and 

 reprehensible practices is that of building dams on the Adiron- 

 dack streams, to set back the water, and then use the "head"' 

 thus obtained to float logs down when released. This de- 

 structive practice should be among those prohibited bylaw. Its 

 effect is to kill the trees in wide areas thus subjected to artificial 

 but protracted overflow. In former years, the peculiar charm 



