PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN NEW YORK 



BY 

 E. S. BRUCE 



Lumberman, U. S. Forest Service 



A REFORMED scalawag often 

 ** makes a peaceful and law abid- 

 ing citizen. Then why should not a 

 converted lumberman make a good 

 forester ? Xot many years ago, I was 

 an active member of that great army, 

 who for nearly 300 years, have been 

 chopping away at our forests with an 

 eye only to immediate profit, and per- 

 haps I am none the worse forester for 

 having been a lumberman. 



If we consider details, there are a 

 vast number of ways of handling a 

 forest. If we consider policy, there 

 are only three. One of these is to 

 harvest its product with a view only 

 to present returns. That is the ordi- 

 nary way, the lumberman's way. It 

 is a policy whose inevitable conse- 

 quence in the long run, would be the 

 destruction of the forest, and the ex- 

 tinction of the lumber industry. 



Another policy in forest utilization 

 is to preserve it by wise use. That is 

 the practical forester's way, and I am 

 glad to say, it is very rapidly growing 

 to be the lumberman's way also. The 

 result of practical forestry, in a word, 

 is the continuous production of a sup- 

 ply of timber which yields good finan- 

 cial returns without depreciating the 

 capital stock the forest. 



Still another policy is to lock the 

 forest up, so to speak to protect it 

 from fire and other dangers, which is 

 excellent, but to protect it also from 

 any form of utilization, which is fool- 

 ish. This is neither the lumberman's 

 way nor the forester's way, but the 

 most extravagant policy of all, in its 

 results, although its intention may be 

 entirely praiseworthy. And that !is 

 the policy under which our New York 

 State forest is administered. Until 

 the constitutional amendment forbid- 

 ding the cutting of any state timber 



is repealed, we will continue to throw 

 away each year enough money to pay 

 all the expenses of caring for the pre- 

 serve and to leave above and beyond 

 that a considerable and increasing bal- 

 ance. I fully realize that the constitu- 

 tional amendment may have saved the 

 Adirondack Preserve from gross mis- 

 use in the past, but I am loath to be- 

 lieve that the State of New York is 

 not now in a position to lumber its 

 own forest conservatively, without 

 danger. The preserve is now, as a 

 great health and pleasure resort, yield- 

 ing returns of incalculable value to the 

 well-being of the state, and conse- 

 quently of the nation, but before it 

 can fill its full measure of usefulness, 

 it must be made to produce, by skillful 

 and conservative methods, a constant 

 and increasing supply of wood. To 

 lumber the preserve conservatively 

 would not in the slightest degree im- 

 pair its value as a health and pleasure 

 resort or as a game refuge. More- 

 over, it would, through utilizing tim- 

 ber which under the present policy 

 will continue to rot upon the ground, 

 furnish permanently the staple upon 

 which the development of local in- 

 dustries, the employment of labor, and 

 in no small measure the continued 

 prosperity of the northern portion of 

 the state, largely depends. 



When the conservative man of busi- 

 ness has money lying idle, he puts that 

 money to work in a stable enterprise 

 which yields a reasonable profit. He 

 does not bury it in the ground or hide 

 it in the garret. The State of Xew 

 York is not only failing to put its 

 money out at interest ; it is throwing 

 the money itself away. It would l>e 

 poor business policy for a farmer to 

 raise a crop of wheat and to let it 

 moulder on the stalk rather than to 



