1901 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



47 



proposed change may be best understood 

 when the organization of the present 

 Commissions, and their duties are con- 

 sidered. At present the Forest, Fish and 

 Game Commission is made up of five 

 members appointed by the Governor with 

 the consent of the Senate. Its duties 

 include the active administration of the 

 State Forest Preserve, and also the protec- 

 tion of fish, game, and shellfish interests. 

 Under the existing law the President of 

 this Commission receives an annual salary 

 of $3,000, and each of the other four 

 members of the Board gets $2,500 per 

 annum. In addition each Commissioner 

 is now allowed $800 a year for travelling 

 expenses. The Forest Preserve Board as 

 at present constituted, is composed of 

 three members, appointed by the Gover- 

 nor from the Forest, Fish and Game Com- 

 mission, an 1 from the Commissioners of 

 the Land Office. The duty of this Board 

 is to purchase land for the State Forest 

 Preserves. 



Governor Odell's suggestions, which 

 have already been embodied in a bill and 

 introduced in the Assembly, would sub- 

 stitute for the present arrangement a single 

 commission. The bill directs that this 

 new Commission shall consist of three 

 members who are to be appointed by the 

 Governor with the consent of the Senate. 

 Two of these Commissioners, judging 

 from the bill that was first introduced, 

 will be chosen from the Commissioners of 

 the Land Office and are to serve without 

 pay. The third member, who is to be ap- 

 pointed for a term to expire on December 

 31, 1 901, and whose successors are to 

 hold office for three years, will receive a 

 salary of $5,000 per annum and will be 

 the executive officer of the Commission. 



The new Commission will do without the 

 services of an assistant secretary. It will 

 be permitted, however, to expend $2,000 

 per annum for the services of a secre- 

 tary, and whatever reasonable amount is 

 required for the employment of an engi- 

 neer and clerical assistance. 



What this practically amounts to is 

 putting one man in charge of the work 

 which two Commissions have been hand- 

 ling. As no one man can take care of 

 this work properly, it is inevitable that, 

 for the management of the forest, fish and 

 game interests of the State, the advice and 

 assistance of experts in these matters 

 would be called in. As the work in New 

 York State is great in amount, as well as 

 in importance it is probable that the con- 

 nection of these experts with the Commis- 

 sion would be more than an occasional 

 one, and the salaried member of the Com- 

 mission would thus have to be a good 

 executive officer above all else. What is 

 practically a single-headed management 

 makes a great deal depend on one ap- 

 pointment. If a poor man should be ap- 

 pointed the results would be much worse 

 than would be possible under the present 

 arrangement, but the responsibility would 

 be centered and the difficulty would be 

 more easily remedied. On the other 

 hand the new arrangement would give to 

 a good man much more power and op- 

 portunity for usefulness than the present 

 one. That good men can be secured 

 Mr. W. Austin Wadsworth, the president 

 of the present Commission, has proved. 

 If he or some one like him were ap- 

 pointed to the third place on the reorgan- 

 ized Commission, the proposed change 

 would be a long step in advance in the 

 management of New York's forest-. 



NEWS, NOTES, AND COMMENT. 



The National Board of 

 Trade recently adopted 

 the following resolutions : 

 " Whereas, The contin- 

 ued prosperity of agriculture, lumbering, 



National Board 

 of Trade on 

 Forestry. 



mining, transportation ami commerce, 

 throughout the United Stales, is insepar- 

 ably related to the preservation and con- 

 servative use of our forests; and. 



" Whereas, The steady development 



