PROGRESS OF FORESTRY IN NEW YORK 



By DR. HUGH P. BAKER 

 Dean of The New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse, Neiv York 



Some fifty years ago New York led 

 in the production of lumber in this 

 country. Today she has dropped to 

 24th place and there promises to be a 

 continual downward trend in the curve 

 of production until the great areas of 

 State land are thrown open to careful 

 cutting and more of the second growth 

 now coming on is ready for the axe. In 

 spite of this rapid downward trend, 

 nearly a billion feet of lumber were 

 sawed during the past year. Every 

 phase of the present status of both the 

 forests and the lumber industry indi- 

 cates that New York will eventually 

 take a leading place among the forest 

 producing States of the country. 



Recent statistics show that out of the 

 34,000,000 acres in the State but 22,- 

 000,000 are included within farms. Of 

 this 22,000,000 but 15,000,000 are actu- 

 ally in agricultural crops. This means 

 that there are 7,000,000 of idle acres in 

 the farms of New York which should 

 be productive. It is probable that not 

 all of this large area is actually non- 

 agricultural but without question there 

 is an area larger than the State of Mas- 

 sachusetts enclosed within farms and 

 nonproductive. Of the 12,000,000 acres 

 outside of farms, it has been shown that 

 less than a half contains merchantable 

 timber. About 4,500,000 of the 12,- 

 000,000 acres are covered with more or 

 less valuable growth, but not merchant- 

 able. There are nearly 2,000,000 acres 

 with no valuable growth. IT IS SAFE 

 TO SAY THAT BETWEEN 12,000,- 

 ooo AND 14,000,000 ACRES IN THE 

 STATE WILL EVENTUALLY BE 

 DEVOTED TO FORESTRY. This 

 represents an area as large as all of 

 Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachu- 

 setts and forty miles north in Vermont 

 and New Hampshire, or all of New 

 York State north of the New York 

 Central lines. 



Forest land in Europe, not nearly as 

 well adapted to the production of 

 forests as much of the forest areas of 

 New York, is producing as high as $3 

 to $5 per acre per year net profit. Last 

 year this State sent out through the 

 ports of New York, the Tonawandas, 

 Plattsburgh and elsewhere over fifteen 

 millions of dollars for wood to be used 

 in the industries. There is absolutely 

 no reason why the 12 to 14 millions of 

 acres of forest land in the State should 

 not eventually produce more per acre 

 than is now being produced abroad. 

 This would save to the State the mil- 

 lions now sent elsewhere for timber and 

 make it really an export state. At the 

 same time the millions of acres at pres- 

 ent unproductive would be sharing their 

 support of the commonwealth and 

 would become of immense indirect 

 value in aiding conservation of water 

 and soil. 



Great progress has been made during 

 the past few years in the protection of 

 the forests of the state. Out of the 

 3,500,000 acres enclosed within the blue 

 line in the Adirondacks, the State owns 

 over 1,800,000 acres. A great deal of 

 the land and especially that which has 

 been purchased recently, has been cut 

 over or burned over and yet there are 

 considerable areas of virgin forest more 

 than ready for the axe which have 

 been tied up for a number of years by 

 the constitutional provision preventing 

 the cutting of timber on State lands. 

 There has been a fairly rapid extension 

 of the use of observation towers con 

 nected by telephone with settlers and 

 villages and it is expected that the 

 number of these towers will approxi- 

 mate 50 before the end of the year. 

 It is difficult to estimate accurately to 

 what extent the erection of these towers 

 has diminished the area burned over 

 each year and yet the general evidence 



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