166 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



April 



little puff of adverse criticism of its 

 methods the appropriations were with- 

 drawn and the school was closed. 



The present State holdings of land 

 are so scattered and intersperced with 

 private holdings, that it is obviously 

 impossible, at any reasonable cost, to 

 apply intelligent forestry methods to 

 them, or protect them from lumber 

 thieves and forest fires. 



It is probable that the land now 

 owned by the state in the Adiron- 

 dacks, about 1,250,000 acres, has a 

 frontage of fully 10,000 miles upon 

 private lots ranging in size from 40 

 acres to 90,000, whereas, if it was con- 

 solidated, the length of boundary 

 might be reduced to 200 miles. When 

 one remembers that but a very small 

 part of this long line is plainly mark- 

 ed, and on one side of it is State woods 

 or brush, and on the other side of it 

 hundreds, if not thousands of men are 

 cutting timber and wood and burn- 

 ing brush, it does not seem strange 

 that the department is unable, with 

 the appropriations available, to pro- 

 tect it. 



The difficulty is also immensely in- 

 creased by the provision of the Con- 

 stitution prohibiting the cutting or re- 

 moval of any trees from the State 

 lands. When this was put into the 

 Constitution the public did not have 

 confidence in the forest officials, and 

 the condition reminds us of the nat- 

 ural and divine law, that the sins of 

 the fathers shall be visited upon the 

 children, even unto the third and 

 fourth generation. It is earnestly 

 hoped that before many years the 

 New York State forestry department 

 will be organized on such a basis as 

 to command the confidence of the 

 community, to the extent of per- 

 mitting the removal of this provision 

 of the Constitution. 



The time has come when the forest 

 problem of New York State should 

 be taken up boldly, and solved on the 

 broadest scale. Every community 

 and every citizen has a vital inter- 

 est in it. 



The protection of the sources of 



water supply to our cities, the in- 

 crease of the value of our beautiful 

 streams and rivers for navigation, 

 development of power, and propaga- 

 tion of fish, the establishment of the 

 most enjoyable health and pleasure 

 resorts, within reach of the common 

 people, and the permanent mainte- 

 nance of countless industries, minis- 

 tering to the need and comfort of all, 

 depent upon the proper solving of 

 this problem. The forest work should 

 be spread over the entire State, 

 so as to bring it in contact with the 

 largest number of citizens, whose 

 opinions and votes must sustain it. 



There are sixty-one counties, in all 

 of which, excepting five or six, there 

 should be a State forest. In some it 

 would cover the larger part of the 

 county, while in others it might not 

 exceed 1,000 acres. All lands not 

 fitted for agriculture or profitable 

 grazing, whether in the Adirondacks 

 or the Catskills, or the foot hills of 

 the Alleghanies, or on the shore of 

 Long Island, should be under proper 

 forest managment. 



The watersheds where the water 

 supplies for the great cities are col- 

 lected, should, as far as possible, be 

 covered with forests. While Phil- 

 adelphia is expending huge sums for 

 filtering its water supply after it has 

 been contaminated, and other cities 

 are forced to do the same, it appeals 

 to our common sense that where it 

 is possible, it would be better to col- 

 lect the water from forest clad slopes 

 rather than from highly cultivated 

 farming land. For this reason the 

 most attractive source for the ad- 

 ditional water supply to New York 

 is the Catskill region, where a great 

 forest can be most advantageously 

 established and maintained. 



The city of Rochester which takes 

 its supply from Hemlock Lake in 

 Livingston and Ontario counties has 

 expended hundreds of thousands of 

 dollars in purchasing a strip of land 

 all around the lake and has begun to 

 set out forest tree seedlings to start 

 a forest on its big plantation. It has 





