s 4 



THE FORESTER. 



April, 



the general scope of the act of i SS5 . Trou- 

 bles followed; bills were passed enabling 

 the Commission to buy and exchange lands, 

 and to sell both lands and timber. But 

 the land negotiations were not profitable to 

 the State and the method of exchange was 

 abolished. 



A spirit hostile to the purposes for which 

 the Forest Commission was established 

 arose in districts where the exemption of 

 State lands from taxes worked an injustice. 

 To remedy this an act was passed in 1SS6 

 which provided that all wild or forest lands 

 required by the State within the limits of 

 the Forest Preserve should be taxed at a 

 like valuation and at a like rate as those at 

 which similar land within the same coun- 

 ties were assessed and taxed. In 1887 

 (Ch. 562) there was passed an act to es- 

 tablish parks for the propagation of deer 

 and other game upon lands belonging to 

 the State in the Catskills. The parks were 

 selected and the deer caught and confined. 

 But the deer did not thrive within the nar- 

 row limits provided, and they were again 

 released. 



Arbor Day was established by the act of 

 April 30, 1SS8. Since then the Friday 

 following the first day of May has been 

 celebrated as Arbor Day. In accordance 

 with authority conferred by this law, the 

 Secretary of Public Instruction has pub- 

 lished numerous excellent pamphlets and 

 a comprehensive Arbor Day Manual. 



By an amendment to the Revised Stat- 

 utes passed May 7, 1889, the penalty of a 

 twenty-five dollar fine was imposed for 

 every tree cut or carried away by any per- 

 son, from State lands, Indian lands, or 

 lands within the Forest Preserve. 



The project to establish a State Park in 

 1 he Adirondack region was again vigor- 

 ously pushed about 1890 under the leader- 

 ship ,t the Adirondack Park Association, 

 and in 1892, came the act to establish an 

 Adirondack Park and to authorize the pur- 

 chase and sale of lands within the counties 

 included in the Forest Preserve. 



The Forest Commission was reorganized 

 in [893, the plan being to hand over the 

 control of the Preserve to the State Agri- 

 cultural Department after five years. But 

 in 1895 this arrangement was prevented 



by the consolidation into a single Commis- 

 sion of the Old Forest Commission with 

 the Fish and Game Commission, the name 

 being changed to the Fisheries, Game and 

 Forest Commission. 



A yearbefore had come the Constitutional 

 Amendment (Sec. 7, Art. VII.) which 

 provided that the timber on the Forest Pre 

 serve could not be cut, or destroyed. Thi 

 amendment was not the natural growth o 

 an intelligent policy of protection ; for tha 

 would have provided for a prudent exploi 

 tation of the forest. It was a necessary ac 

 of self-defence, to which the citizens of th 

 State were driven by the uncertain and un 

 successful methods of the Commissioners. 

 No sooner was the amendment adopte 

 than plans were set afoot in the Legislator 

 for its repeal. At the end of the two years 

 required, before a proposed amendment 

 could be laid before the people, viz., in 

 1S96, a proposal to repeal the amendment 

 of 1894 was put to vote on Election Day. 

 The President of the Commission, in a 

 letter published in the New York Tt'mes, 

 asked the people to vote for the new 

 amendment; and oddly enough the only 

 recommendation he had to urge was the 

 statement that neither the new Commission \ 

 nor its predecessor had anything to do 

 with the proposal. On election day the 

 people showed their faith in this recom- 

 mendation by rejecting it by the largest 

 majority ever polled against a constitu- 

 tional amendment a majority of 350,000. 



The terms of the first appointees of the 

 Fisheries and Forest Commission came to 

 an end in March, when Governor Roose- ; 

 velt appointed the five present* officers 1 

 for terms of five years. 



By an act of February 19, 1900, the 

 name of the Fisheries, Game and Forest 

 Commission was changed to the Forest, 

 Fish and Game Commission. The altera- 

 tion is, however, more than nominal. Im- 

 portant amendments to the earlier law ap- 

 pear, and the law also gains in force by 

 its greater clearness and brevity. 



During the past session of the State 

 Legislature there was passed another im- 



*This paper was written hefore this spring's 

 reorganization of the Commission. Ed. 



