1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



23 r 



The first legislation, instituting the For- 

 est Commission, had in view the applica- 

 tion of forestry to the management of the 

 property, but the commission failed to 

 devise such technical management and the 

 people, as is well known, restricted the 

 activities of the commission, by consti- 

 tutional amendment, forbidding the cutting 

 of trees on State lands. 



Knowing the history of this amendment, 

 we can assert that it was intended not to 

 establish a policy of non-use and to ex- 

 clude forever the proper use of the axe, 

 but rather to delay it until conditions should 

 be more favorable for the employment of 

 technical forest management. If noth- 

 ing else were to warrant this conclusion, 

 the establishment of the New York State 

 College of Forestry with its experimental 

 forest area, within the limits of the pro- 

 posed State Forest Preserve must stand as 

 an earnest that, ultimately, technical for- 

 est management is expected and intended. 

 There is, to be sure, no haste necessary to 

 engage in such technical work, but even 

 now the commission is in a position to do 

 considerable preliminary work and to pre- 

 pare for the future. 



There can be no question as to the first 

 step in attacking the problem of technical 

 management. As the physician bases his 

 treatment on a diagnosis, so the adminis- 

 trator of a property must first become ac- 

 quainted with its conditions. 



The first step, therefore, towards a 

 technical management of the State's forest 

 property must be a forest survey; i. ?., a 

 technical description of the conditions of 

 each parcel in such a manner that its 

 character, condition and location can be 

 readily referred to. 



The commission should know not only 

 the acreage of the burnt lands and of the 

 virgin and the culled forest it controls ; 

 not only the location of each parcel of 

 forest land, but the condition of each with 

 regard to its possible treatment. Such a 

 description can be satisfactorily made only 

 by an educated forester who, like a phy- 

 sician, diagnoses with a view to devising 

 the remedy. It is only when the condi- 

 tion of the whole or major part of the 

 property is known that a harmonious, well- 



considered plan for its technical manage- 

 ment can be devised and followed. It is- 

 then that the silvicultural problems in- 

 volved become apparent. 



It was mainly for the solutions of silvi- 

 cultural problems that the New York State 

 College of Forestry was endowed with an 

 area of thirty thousand acres in the Adiron- 

 dacks, the tract having been so located as 

 to exhibit the greatest variety of problems 

 that might be met in the entire reserve. 



The silvicultural problems can be classi- 

 fied into at least four groups, with any 

 number of subdivisions according to the 

 character of the prevailing forest con- 

 ditions. They will have to do with the 

 treatment (i) of virgin lands, (2) of culled 

 lands, (3) of slashes or burns, and (4) of 

 swamps. 



Since the virgin lands in the Adiron- 

 dacks are reduced to a comparatively small 

 area, a few hundred thousand acres, they 

 may, like the swamps, be left without 

 detriment to future consideration. It is, 

 therefore, to the culled lands and the 

 slashes, of which the major part of the 

 State property consists, that attention 

 should first be directed. 



The slashes and old burns and openings 

 of various kinds exhibit quite a variety of 

 conditions and admit, therefore, the pos- 

 sibility of a variety of treatment. But 

 they are all alike in this, that in their pres- 

 ent condition they are in the greatest 

 danger from forest fires and that, in most 

 cases, they fail to grow useful material. 

 They are not only dead capital, but a 

 menace to the standing timber. Not only 

 do they furnish the best chances for the 

 starting of fires, but once a fire is started, 

 the winds, sweeping through the open, 

 drive it with such fury that human efforts 

 to stop its progress are in vain. Usually 

 it burns over the entire opening and de- 

 stroys whatever young growth nature has 

 begun to cover the ground with. 



In some places, repeated fires have al- 

 most cleared the area of the old debris 

 and it is possible to begin planting with 

 valuable species without further prepar- 

 ation. In other cases, there is need of 

 clearing the ground of debris more or less 

 thoroughly in order to reduce the danger 



