1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



381 



acres, representing approximately the which crops were reported as grown 

 area of pasture land irrigated. It is without irrigation was really irrigated 

 probable that a portion of the area upon at some time during the year. 



THE LUMBER INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK. 



A HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRY FROM COEONIAE TIMES TO THE 



PRESENT DAY. 



AT this time of unusual public inter- 

 est in the forests of New York a 

 recent publication * by the Bureau of 

 Forestry, in which the lumber industry 

 in that state from the days of its begin- 

 nings to the present time is described, 

 will be of decided value. 



This bulletin opens with a description 

 of the primitive forest, its composition, 

 the beginnings of the lumber industry, 

 the first saw-mills, the early lumber 

 markets, and the primitive methods of 

 lumbering. Rafting and log-driving are 

 graphically described, and the history 

 of log-marks, log-scales, modern saw- 

 mills, tanneries, and the rise of the 

 wood-pulp industry is traced. 



Just when the labor of the early set- 

 tlers first took the form which we now 

 call lumbering it is impossible to say, 

 but it is shown that in 1623, nine 3'ears 

 after the first house was built at New 

 Amsterdam , three saw-mills were erected 

 there b}- the Dutch West India Com- 

 pany ; and, with their erection, com- 

 mences the history of lumbering in the 

 State of New York. 



The machinery for these mills, which 

 was shipped from Holland, was con- 

 structed to run by water-power or by 

 windmill. One of the mills was erected 

 on Governor's Island and was probably 

 operated by wind-power; another, which 

 stood on Sawmill Creek, a tributary of 

 the East River, may have used a water- 

 wheel. In 1639 the mill on Governor's 

 Island was leased at an annual rental of 

 500 merchantable boards, half oak and 

 half pine. 



Timber thieves flourished in the early 



* History of the Lumber Industry in the 

 State of New York. By William F. Fox. Bul- 

 letin No. 34, Bureau of Forestry, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. Pp. 59 ; plates XIX. 



days, and there were likewise foresters 

 to look after them. In 1770 Adolphus 

 Benzel, son of Archbishop Eric Benzel, 

 of Sweden, was appointed inspector of 

 His Majesty's woods and forests in the 

 vicinity of Lake Champlain, at a salary 

 of ^300 per annum. It is interesting 

 to note that as early as 1700 Lord 

 Bellomont, governor of New York, rec- 

 ommended that each person who re- 

 moved a tree should pay for planting 

 ' ' four or five young trees ; ' ' that no 

 tree should be cut ' ' that is marked for 

 the use of the Navy," and that no tree 

 or trees be cut ' ' but when the sap is in 

 the root." 



Within the last twenty years the log- 

 ging industry in northern New York 

 has been materially affected by the 

 demand for material necessary in the 

 manufacture of wood-pulp, an industry 

 of comparatively recent development. 

 Ground pulp, obtained by holding blocks 

 of wood against a grindstone, was first 

 made in this country in 1867, at Stock- 

 bridge, Mass. Chemical mills, in which 

 the fiber is reduced by the action of acids 

 under steam pressure, were introduced 

 about the same time. Now there are 

 293 mills, mechanical and chemical, in 

 the United States, of which 102 are lo- 

 cated in New York. 



At first the New York mills used 

 only Poplar ( Populus tremuloides) . This 

 was deemed a desirable condition by for- 

 esters, because this species does not ap- 

 pear to be available for any other pur- 

 pose, while at the same time it is the 

 tree with which nature most quickly 

 reforests burned areas in the Adiron- 

 dacks. But Poplar was soon discarded 

 in favor of Spruce, to which have been 

 added within the last five years some 

 of the other conifers, the process of man- 



