404 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



APPLICATIONS OF FORESTRY METHODS IN NEW 

 YORK TO MINNESOTA CONDITIONS. 



PROF. B. E FERNOW, DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK COLLEGE OF 



FORESTRY. 



The state of New York may be said to be the first, and until two 

 years a^o it was the only state that entered upon a definite forest 

 policy with a substantial basis. This policy dates from the year 

 1885. The federal g-overnnient took its first step in 1891, when the 

 president was empowered to set aside forest reservations fom the 

 public domain; Pennsylvania, with a permanent division of forestry 

 in its newly established department of agriculture and with several 

 small forest reservations as a nucleus, entered upon its forest policy 

 in 1896; other states, as New Hampshire, Maine, Wisconsin, Minne- 

 sota, Colorado, etc., have their forest commissions either for purpo- 

 ses of inquiry or endowed with educational functions or with the 

 duty to enforce the forest fire laws; but New York is the only state 

 which owns a large state forest reserve, and with a definitely stated 

 policy of increasing the same and a stated policy as to objects and 

 methods of treating the same. Moreover, New York has recognized 

 the educational function of the state by establishing last year (1898) 

 a state college of forestry, where the future managers of the state 

 property are to be educated. 



While defective in many respects as to detail, a permanent and 

 stable forest policy is thus inaugurated. 



Cornell University has been selected to undertake the experiment, 

 the law providing for a director, two instructors and other assist- 

 ants, besides the entire staff of teachers and faculty of the univer- 

 sity. 



A tract of 30,000 acres was set aside in the Adirondacks, on which 

 experiments and demonstrations are to be made, designed to furnish 

 an example to lumbermen and owners of timber lands and to furnish 

 the model for the coming state forest administration. 



The college has started, with over thirty students taking advan- 

 tage of its twelve strictly forestry courses; the demonstration area 

 has been located, and active operations will begin this spring. 



The college is also to issue bulletins imparting information to the 

 people of the state, and the first of the series, describing the aims 

 and methods of the new venture, has been issued. 



Thus a beginning is made in the United States with professional 

 forestry before the nineteenth century is gone; it is expected that 

 the first graduates will have finished their studies in two years and 

 enter upon life work with the first year of the twentieth century. 



The state of Minnesota is in much greater need of a forest policy 

 than the state of New York, for it contains a much larger area of 

 land which is only fit for forest growth and should be continuously 

 devoted to timber crops. While, unquestionably, private interest 

 at a later day will enter upon the business of forestry, at present 

 the financial inducements are not sufficiently alluring, and the state 

 must step in to make the first demonstration. The state can now 

 secure the necessary lands more cheaply than later, either under 



