901, 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



81 



The timber and water-supply interest 

 le mill-owner more than any one else, 

 ecause without them his costly mill is 

 seless, and New Hampshire would be 

 afe in leaving her timberlands in his 

 ands if he were intelligently advised and 

 be State encouraged him to handle them 

 ar a constant yield. 



In the first place, the State should see to 

 : that the Board of Equalization is com- 

 iosed of men who know the timberlands 

 pon which they fix the taxes, and not a 

 ody of city men appointed for political 

 easons who do not know a spruce from a 

 fhite birch. Then, all land which is al- 

 3wed to grow up to forests should be 

 xemptfrom taxation, and on alltimberland 

 diere the cutting has been restricted the 

 ixes should be proportionately reduced. 



The timberland owner often does not 

 are to restrict his cutting, because the 

 itate gives him no protection from fire, 

 nd the timber which he leaves standing 

 5 liable to be burnt up. The State should 

 blige all locomotives to carry spark pro- 

 sctors and pass stringent fire laws which 

 you Id hold a man responsible for all dam- 

 ge from any fire which he set maliciously 

 r otherwise. 



New Hampshire derives large sums 

 ach summer from the tourists who are 



attracted by the wonderful mountain 

 scenery and every effort should be made 

 to preserve the timber at the chief points 

 of interest. But the lumber and paper 

 companies who usually own the timber 

 naturally intend to cut it and cannot be 

 expected to keep roads and trails in repair 

 for the use of summer visitors. 



The State may not be rich enough to 

 buy a large forest reserve but it should cer- 

 tainly own the principal mountains, such 

 as Washington, Adams, Jefferson, etc. 



So far there have been very few serious 

 fires in these mountains, and little bare or 

 burned over land is to be seen, but with 

 lumbering operations along the higher 

 slopes the danger will be very much 

 greater. 



Bonds could be issued to pay for these 

 lands and the sale of the mature timber 

 would more than pay the interest on 

 them. Let the Society for the Protection 

 of New Hampshire Forests, the com- 

 mittee on forestry from the house of rep- 

 resentatives, and the men in charge of the 

 timberlands owned by the big lumber and 

 paper mills come together and devise 

 some rational, practical plan for the 

 intelligent management and protection of 

 the vast and enormously valuable forests 

 of the State. 



THE FOREST LAWS OF NEW YORK. 



By Treadwell Cleveland, Jr. 



THE English settlers of the Colony of 

 New York brought with them an 

 inherited respect for the value of 

 rees, and among the earliest regulations 

 ire to be found provisions against their 

 vasteful use and for their protection from 

 ire. But earlier still, during the Dutch 

 >ccupationof New Amsterdam, it appears 

 hat safeguards existed for the care of for- 

 :sts. Thus in 1650 the Director and 

 Council of New Netherlands, acting for 

 he West India Company, granted to "free- 

 nen the liberty to cut and draw from the 

 jublic forests as much firewood and tim- 



ber as they should require." Public forests 

 must therefore have been respected, since 

 the use of timber growing therein was re- 

 garded as a privilege rather than a right. 

 Among the " Duke's Laws," in force 

 from 1665 to 1675, is a provision by which 

 all persons are forbidden to " kindle any 

 fire in the woods or grounds lying Com- 

 mon, or in his own Grounds so as the 

 same shall run into any Corne Grounds or 

 Enclosures of his neighbors; the penalty 

 being the full amount of damage and half 

 as much again for a fine, or in case of in- 

 ability to pay, corporal punishment not ex- 



