A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 755 



none. * * * On the other hand, they cannot but feel gratified at the high 

 commendation which has been passed generally upon the course that they have 

 pursued and at the great interest that is everywhere felt in the work in which 

 they are engaged. 



Of the varied kinds of "bold and knavish attempts to plunder the 

 State" which "the Commission is attempting to stop" a single 

 illustrative example may be cited. 



It has been shown by figures that during the years 1871 to 1876 one individual 

 cut from State land 52,131.91 market logs, valued at the lowest estimate at 

 more than $52,000. He was only one of many who were engaged in this work 

 of plunder during the same period, and was by no means the largest operator. 

 What is true of the years before specified, is true of the succeeding years, and of 

 how many preceding years is and must remain unknown. 



The Commissioners had their difficulties, too, in finding the right 

 men for the various local positions which they had to fill. The 

 Federal Government had, through the enactment of the civil service 

 law of 1883, taken a small first step toward the introduction of the 

 merit system, as a means of obtaining competent civil servants and 

 preventing the influence of politicians from getting or forcing on the 

 public pay roll incompetent or otherwise unfit men; but "snivel-serv- 

 ice reform" was anathema to all practical politicians and had many 

 ups and downs to go through before State authorities were even to 

 begin to take it seriously. Since 



the Commissioners could not possibly have such an extensive acquaintance 

 throughout the 14 counties of the forest preserve as to enable them to select men 

 from a personal knowledge of their qualification, 



they had to 



rely largely upon the recommendations of known and trusted men throughout 

 the different localities from which the foresters were to be chosen. To say that 

 under these circumstances some mistakes in making selections were possible is 

 simply to utter a truism. * * * Many applicants were pressed upon the 

 Commission for appointment, with the best intentions doubtless, whom the 

 Commissioners felt compelled to reject as being, in their opinion, unfit for the 

 services required of them. 



Multitudinous other difficulties incidental to defining the objec- 

 tives, laying out the plans, and building up the organization for a 

 public enterprise wholly new and undefined in character, with no 

 precedent to guide and very little information to enlighten them, had 

 also to be dealt with. 



The science of forestry in America is yet in its swaddling clothes it is, perhaps, 

 a risk to assume that its toilet is so far made as that. Even the practical business 

 matters that have been presented to the Commission for investigation and settle- 

 ment * * * involved substantially new questions, demanded much investiga- 

 tion, were beclouded with much loosely woven legislation, and were often 

 entangled in such contradictory enactments, opinions, discussions, and rulings 

 as to render it difficult to find a clue out of the labyrinth. 1 



Moreover, it was difficult to establish the location and extent of 

 the land owned by the State. 



The forest preserve is made up of many disconnected plots, more in some 

 counties than in others; plots, ranging from a few acres up to many thousands, 

 surrounded usually by lands owned by individuals and in many cases inaccessi- 

 ble by roads. * * * There are large tracts in which the State owns but an 

 undivided interest, one half, one third, or one fourth, as the case may be, and 

 instances are on record where individuals thus owning with the State have not 

 waited for a partition, but have gone on and lumbered the whole. 2 



1 Annual Report of the Forest Commission of the State of New York for 1886, p. 7. 



2 Annual Report of the Forest Commission of the State of New York for 1885, p. 17. 



