58 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



cover l'\ cutting clean. It was financially unprofitable, so that money to 

 n- 1. 1 ;i nt 'ran short. For the same reason, the slash was left on the ground, 

 ; . promptly accepted invitation to forest fires. Finally, the Cornell experi- 

 ment did not conform to the first principle of true forestry in the Adirondacks 

 which is to secure natural reproduction from seed trees left standing after 

 riming only trees carefully selected and marked. 



SOME PERTINENT ADVICE 



c, i forestry on State lands in the North woods demands cutting so 



moderate as not to destroy forest conditions, or seriously disturb the forest 

 cover. Practical forestry in the Adirondack Park should begin slowly and at 

 tirst should cut not more than \% of the Park each year. The first con- 

 sideration in all cuttings should be to improve the forest. Clean cutting 

 should be forbidden by the Constitution. So should cuttings so heavy as to 

 i in I i; iii- or interrupt the forest condition or require the planting of trees after 

 losing. All logging in green timber should be directed to encourage young 

 growth, and all sound spruce trees below fourteen inches or hardwood below 

 eighteen indies in diameter should be left standing. 



Before the Constitutional question whether practical forestry shall be 

 mil icd in the Adirondack Park is submitted to the people for action, the 



-e: -vation Commission should be called upon to lay before the Legislature 

 ami Ihe people a full description of the methods of practical forestry which 

 it is proposed to apply, and the results these methods are intended to secure. 



In a virgin forest, as the young trees grow up, the old trees die and fall 

 to the ground, thus supplying fuel for forest fires. In a properly handled 

 forest, mature trees are cut down and the slash disposed of, so that an 

 Adirondack forest carefully and properly logged presents no greater invita- 

 tion to fire than one not logged at all. 



The timber in a virgin forest does not increase in quantity, because the 

 growth of the young timber is offset by the death and decay of the old. But 

 in a well handled forest the amount and value of the standing timber steadily 

 inn-eases. The result of practical forestry in the Adirondack Park will not 

 be to decrease the future supply of timber, but to husband and increase it. It 

 i> not only to the interest, but it is the duty, of the State to put its forests 

 in the best possible condition to be useful to the people. That cannot be 

 done without the wise use of the axe. 



The wide use and more efficient protection of the Adirondacks demand 

 a ( hange in the Constitution. Without attempting to use exact legal language, 

 I suggest that Section 7 of Article 7 might well be amended to read somewhat 



as follows: 



The lands of the State, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the 



irondack and Catskill Parks as fixed by law, shall be kept as forest lands. 



shall not be sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public 



private, and no timber shall be cut on said lands except in accordance 



with the principles of conservative forestry, nor shall the permanent forest 



