CONSERVATION COMMISSION. 7 



So much of the welfare and prosperity of the State at large de- 

 pend upon the protection of the watersheds that the State should 

 assume control of the timber cutting, and by law regulate the size 

 of the trees to be cut. The various interests which now own large 

 tracts of forest lands in the Adirondacks especially, have in most 

 cases expressed a willingness for the enactment of such a law, and 

 have 'agreed to co-operate in seeing that such a law was properly 

 observed. This regulation, which would provide that no trees 

 should be cut under a certain diameter, would be an efficient means 

 to prevent the destruction of the watersheds and a great aid in the 

 work of reforestation of cut over lands, in that it would provide 

 natural reforestation by seed trees. 



Referring again to the work of forest fire protection, it may be 

 properly stated that the increased efficiency was in a large part 

 due to the installation during the year of sixteen new observation 

 stations, making thirty-six in all as follows : Ampersand, Frank- 

 lin county; Arab, St. Lawrence; Bald, Lewis; Black, Washington; 

 Blue, Hamilton; Boreas, Essex; Catamount, St. Lawrence; Crane, 

 Warren; Dunn Brook, Hamilton; Kempshall, Hamilton; 

 Makomis, Essex; Ohmer, Saratoga; Owl's Head, Hamilton; 

 Vanderwhacker, Essex; Wakely, Hamilton; Woodhull, Herkimer. 

 Several additional mountain stations are contemplated for 1912. 

 Telephone lines were built to connect the various stations, and the 

 Commission is pleased to report the hearty cooperation of land 

 owners and others in connection with this work. The Commission 

 has the free use of over one hundred miles of private telephone 

 lines. 



The number of fire patrolmen was increased in 1011 from 

 forty-eight to sixty-four, leaving an average area for each to pro- 

 tect of about one hundred thousand acres as against an average of 

 one hundred twenty thousand acres in the previous year. The 

 districts in many cases are still too large. 



The forest product showed a falling off, as shown by the follow- 

 ing figures for the lumber, pulpwood and round wood output re- 

 ported for the three years: 1010, 027,033,201 feet; 1000, 1,091,- 

 104,710 feet; 1008, 1,226,754,305 feet. 



The annual removal of one billion feet of wood material from 

 the State forests could not go on indefinitely, without reforestation 

 on a scale which shall enable the growth to at least balance the 



