COMMERCIAL FOREST PLANTING IN NEW YORK STATE 29 



land should be the function of local 

 governments, counties, cities and towns. 



Practically the latter plan has very 

 many advantages, especially because it 

 means local pride and endeavor in 

 maintaining local forest resources. 

 Such a movement for local acquirement 

 of land, if properly developed, could, 

 under State control and with adequate 

 reforestation solve the problem of the 

 maintenance of timber supply in New 

 York. 



New York legislation has already 

 paved the way for such a development 

 in forestry by the law permitting 

 counties, town and villages to acquire 

 lands for forestry purposes. It is 

 doubtful if this measure alone will 

 suffice to attain the objects desired. 

 Further than this two plans are sug- 

 gested as follows : ( i ) A loan by the 

 State with interest at 3 per cent, for a 

 5O-year period to the local government 

 (county, city, town or village) for use 

 under State regulation in acquiring land 

 and planting it ; loan to be secured by a 



lien on the first crop of timber. (2) 

 Let the State purchase at cost lands 

 owned or acquired for reforestation 

 purposes by counties, cities, towns or 

 villages ; the State to reforest such lands 

 and manage them. Within ten years, 

 however, the local government origi- 

 nally giving deed of such lands to the 

 State may redeem them by paying the 

 State the original cost at 3 per cent, in- 

 terest plus reforestation charges. 



In conclusion : Any program of gen- 

 eral reforestation must be based on in- 

 vestigation and land classification. Re- 

 forestation of State lands now denuded 

 is of first importance ; assistance of pri- 

 vate plantings (corporate and individ- 

 ual) by the State is next and the for- 

 mation of a plan for the establishment 

 and management of community for- 

 ests and its execution is next. 



A solution of the problem involves 

 effort by all classes of owners and re- 

 forestation must be put on an extensive 

 plan soon. 



Metal and concrete ties have been proven to be unsatisfactory and in Germany they are 

 going back to wooden ties in spite of the gradually increasing cost. 



New York uses more zchite pine than any other wood. The other trees used in order 

 of importance are spruce, white oak, southern pine, hard maple, hemlock, chestnut, etc] 

 Large quantities of red wood and Douglass fir from the Pacific Coast as well as yellow 

 pine from the South are imported into this state when our own native woods are better for 

 general purposes and could be just as well grown here. 



The Conservation Commission has issued under date of January I, 1914, a revised 

 " List of Lands in the Forest Preserve." The former list published in 1909 places the area 

 of the Forest Preserve at 1,634,261 acres. The present publication states this area to be 

 1,825,883 acres, of which 201,827 acres are lands under water. The previous list included 

 lands under water but no effort ivas made to classify them separately. This publication gives 

 a list of the 6,850 parcels owned by the State. The edition is limited and is not available for 

 general distribution nor is it of interest to the general public. 



The season of 1913 was one of extreme drought in the forest sections of this state. 

 Six hundred eighty-eight forest fires -were reported in the forest sections of the Adiron- 

 dack and Catskill Mountain regions. This territory was protected through a force consisting 

 of 5 district rangers, 69 local rangers and 49 lookouts on mountain stations. Each ranger 

 was assigned a territory approximating 100,000 acres. Although the drought made the 

 fire danger great but 7/10 of i per cent of the area under protection was burned. The 

 entire cost of protection, including the expense of extinguishing fires, was less than 14 

 mills per acre which is, on the average approximately 2 mills per dollar of valuation. The 

 effectiveness of the present system has been fully demonstrated. It can be made more 

 effective by the increased number of Mountain Stations and rangers. 



