24 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



(i) A system of transportation has been arranged 



for, so that thousands who do not own motor cars 



have an opportunity to go into the interior of 



the Park. Last summer thousands of passengers 



were carried in these omnibuses. 



In the field of recreation, the most notable achievement 



of the Park is in its camp work. Last summer over 



50,000 people, mostly children, spent an average of eight 



consecutive days each in the camps. Those interested in 



forestry will, I am sure, be particularly impressed with 



the plan, by which this recreational phase of the Coin- 



utilizing what would otherwise be a waste product and 

 which, in no small measure, beautify the buildings. Water 

 from protected sources is tapped and brought into the 

 kitchen of the mess hall. Beaches have been made at 

 the lakes, to make possible safe bathing for the timid. 

 Over five million trees have been set out in the Park, so 

 that the future may not be unprovided for by the needs 

 of today. 



To many people, camping has come to mean a lowering 

 of the standard of decent living. Unsanitary living condi- 

 tions have often been mistaken for the romance of primi- 



THE FORCES OF NATURAL CONSERVATION AND HUMAN CONSERVATION TAKE COUNSEL BY THE FIRESIDE 



George W. Perkins (seated, reading from left to right), for twenty years president of the New York State Palisades Park Commission; W. A. 

 Welch, General Manager of the Park; Dr. Edward L. Partridge, a Commissioner and among the first to suggest the preservation of the High- 

 lands of the Hudson, now the Bear Mountain Park region; Hon. George D. Pratt, Conservation Commissioner of the State of New York. 

 (Standing) Edward F. Brown, of the Commission star). 



mission's work has been developed. Rustic cabins, built 

 in harmony with the surrounding country, have been 

 placed unobtrusively, usually on the lakes. The logs 

 from which the cabins were built were the dead chest- 

 nut trees in the forests ; the lumber used comes from the 

 Commission's own mills, three of which are operated 

 and which, during a year, produced more than two million 

 feet of lumber. Slabs usually a waste product of the 

 mill have been used extensively in camp buildings, thus 



tive living. Irregular food habits have been looked upon 

 as the necessary concomitant of camping. The ideal of 

 the Commission has been to preserve all the self-reliance 

 and vigor which come from camping in the woods, while 

 at the same time, providing the means by which an out- 

 of-doors existence is made to mean something in terms 

 of health, education and pleasure. 



I have always been impressed, in a deep study of the 

 food problem, with the fact that people are not so much 



