Forestry and Irrigation, 



VOL. X. 



MARCH, 1904. 



No. 3. 



NEWS AND NOTES. 



The Crisis at Last spring more than 

 Albany. half a million acres of 



forest land in northern 

 New York were ravaged by fires result- 

 ing from the unparalleled drought and 

 the carelessness and viciousness of 

 human kind. 



The railroads, seemingly in arrogant 

 consciousness of power, broke almost 

 every provision of the law relating to 

 the precautions to be observed by them 

 within forest lands. They were respon- 

 sible for more than 50 per cent of the 

 acreage burned in the Adirondacks, but 

 so far they have escaped scot-free with 

 the exception of private suits for dam- 

 age. 



The railroads are the greatest danger 

 which threatens the welfare of New 

 York forests. Next in order come the 

 careless use of fire in fallowing, and in- 

 cendiarism arising from the growing re- 

 sentment the natives feel toward the en- 

 croachments of great private game pre- 

 serves upon hunting grounds formerly 

 free to all. 



New York stands at the parting of the 

 ways. The time has come when she 

 must either adopt an up-to-date, vig- 

 orous, rational policy in regard to the 

 forests of the Adirondacks and the Cats- 

 kills, or else relinquish the worthy posi- 

 tion which for years has distinguished 

 her among all the states as the foremost 

 in matters of forest economics. 



Her forest laws have never been per- 

 fect. Their claim to merit is based 

 largely on comparison with other states, 

 which have either worse laws or none at 

 all. They can no longer endure com- 

 parison with those states which are about 

 to enact codes based on the recommen- 

 dations of experts in forestry. 



The existence of the SenateCommittee 



on Forest Policy (whose report appears 

 in this number) is a hopeful sign. We 

 do not doubt the ability or zeal of its 

 chairman, Senator Brown. The recom- 

 mendations are good, although almost 

 too conservative considering the value of 

 the property whose safety depends upon 

 them. Nothing less will suffice, and yet 

 we can hardly hope that bills based upon 

 them will ever become law, unmodified 

 and unmutilated, considering the oppo- 

 sition and the pitfalls which surely await 

 them in the Legislature and elsewhere. 



If the severe lesson of last year does 

 not arouse the people of the state and 

 their representatives to vigorous and 

 well directed action for the protection of 

 the forests at this time, there is indeed 

 little hope for the Adirondacks. Condi- 

 tions there will not improve by being let 

 alone. One more catastrophe like that of 

 1903, and there will be little left worth 

 protecting. 



If a good law is secured it is up to the 

 governor to see that it is rigidly enforced. 

 There is too much regard for the feel- 

 ings of powerful corporations in New 

 York. For the sake of New York's for- 

 ests we could wish that Mr. Roosevelt 

 were governor still. 



If the present opportunity is allowed 

 to pass, a lasting stigma should and will 

 rest upon the Legislature ; theold excuse 

 of ignorance is no excuse now. There 

 are plenty of Americans who know very 

 well what needs to be done, and there 

 can be no defense for the enactment of 

 any more such confessions of impotence 

 as the constitutional clause at present 

 in force, which evident fear of timber 

 frauds has so encumbered with prevent- 

 ives that it defeats its own true purpose 

 by preventing the necessary care of the 

 forest lands. 



