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1 . 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



85 



portant law amending the above. This 

 created the much-needed office of chief 

 fire-warden. The examples of Minnesota 

 and Wisconsin have plainly pointed to the 

 necessity of a central administrative office 

 charged with the supervision of the work 

 of local fire- wardens. By the same amend- 

 ment the Commission is authorized to ap- 

 point expert foresters, not exceeding three 

 in number, who shall act as deputy fire- 

 wardens, attend to the matter of reforest- 

 ing: burned or barren lands in the Forest 

 Preserve, and otherwise work for its im- 

 provement. 



Through a most happy arrangement, 

 cooperation between the present Commis- 

 sion and the Division of Forestry, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, has 

 come about. By an act passed April 31, 

 1900, the sum of $2,000 was appropriated 

 for the Superintendent of Forests, for the 

 payment of the expenses of experts fur- 

 nished by the Division of Forestry for 

 estimating standing timber and procuring 

 other information regarding the lands and 

 trees in the Forest Preserve. The three 

 State foresters, appointed under the civil 

 service, were detailed to assist the repre- 

 sentatives of the Division of Forestry, 

 their expenses being paid by the State of 

 New York from the appropriation for the 

 chief fire-warden. 



The field party from the Division of 

 Forestry, assisted by the State foresters, 

 began work early in the summer on one 

 of the well-timbered townships in the 



Adirondack Preserve. The field work 

 was continued until October and will 

 result in a detailed working plan for the 

 tract examined, which will be published 

 both by the Division of Forestry and the 

 Forest, Fish and Game Commission. 



No accurate knowledge of the stand of 

 trees either in single districts nor in the 

 Adirondack Preserve, as a whole, has 

 been available till now. Naturally all 

 intelligent management will wait upon 

 the gathering of this knowledge. This 

 working plan, the first ever made for any 

 part of the State Preserve, will be sub- 

 mitted to the Legislature witli recom- 

 mendations urging the passage of an act 

 looking toward the repeal of Art. 7, Sec. 

 VII. of the State Constitution, which now 

 stands in the way of all forest utilization. 

 In view of the scientific character of this 

 work, of the very successful operation of 

 the Division's working plans among pri- 

 vate owners in the Adirondacks, and of 

 the changed and now thoroughly intelli- 

 gent sentiment of the people of the State, 

 the prospect of the fulfilment of this plan 

 is most promising. If success is attained, 

 New York will for a third time take the 

 lead in practical forestry among her sister 

 States. But more than this, the work 

 which has just been indicated marks a very 

 important date in the history of forestry 

 in this country. State and Federal 

 cooperation in practical forest manage- 

 ment has been for the first time real- 

 ized. 



IMPROVEMENT FELLING AS A FINANCIAL SUCCESS. 



By F. E. Olmsted. 

 Division of Forestry. 



ALL forest crops consist of material 

 differing in value; there is invari- 

 ably a chief product which com- 

 mands high and steady prices in the market 

 and also inferior products for which there 

 is no sale, or at least a very uncertain 

 market. It often becomes necessary for 

 the good of the forest to remove a large 



part of this inferior material ; in any forest 

 the result to be worked for is of course 

 gradually to increase the stand of the most 

 valuable species, and to do this at the ex- 

 pense of the less valuable. Just here is 

 one of the most difficult problems a for- 

 ester is called upon to solve. 



It is a simple matter of course to take 



