442 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



supply millions of shingles for build- 

 ings in New York. The western red 

 cedar is so valuable for shingles that it 

 has practically no competition from the 

 home-grown woods. 



Many of the most important wood- 

 using industries of the State, including 

 the manufacturers of planing mill prod- 

 ucts, boxes and crates, sash, doors, 

 blinds and general millwork, furniture, 

 cars, ships, boats, pianos and organs, 

 get most of their raw material from 

 abroad. The ten leading wood-using 

 industries consume a total of 436,000,- 

 000 feet of home-grown wood and pur- 

 chase from other States the enormous 

 amount of 1,038,000,000 feet. New 

 York's forests and woodlots still con- 

 tribute to wood-using industries over 

 half a billion feet of lumber annually. 

 This condition can not continue long, 

 however, unless the State takes a more 

 active part in the restocking and preser- 

 vation of her forest areas, and unless 

 lumbermen and manufacturers utilize 

 the forest products more economically. 

 Two important problems confronting 

 State foresters will be to obtain satis- 

 factory reproduction of the more de- 

 sirable species in the shortest possible 

 time and to increase the growth to the 

 maximum amount which the soil and 

 situation are capable of producing. 



Substantial progress has already been 

 made in the direction of conservation. 

 Three and one-half million acres are 

 enclosed within the so-called "blue line." 

 This line marks the outside boundary of 

 the Adirondack State forest reserve. 

 But of this area the State owns only 

 1,600,000 acres. Much of the land, 

 except that recently purchased, has 

 been cut or burned over. Improved 

 facilities for fire protection have been 

 recently established. Additional ob- 

 servation towers for locating fires have 

 been built and telephone lines extended. 



Excellent work has been done by the 

 New York State Conservation Commis- 

 sion in the matter of reforestation of 

 burned and cut-over lands ; and while 

 the amount of planting to date is in the 

 aggregate small, it is a splendid start 

 in the right direction. From two to 

 three cents only per acre are now being 

 expended in the Adirondack's for fire 

 protection. It would be good economy 

 for the State to expend two to three 

 times this amount. Large timber own- 

 ers in the Northwest spend as high as 

 four to five cents per acre and New 

 York can not afford to spend less. 



New York is especially favored 

 among the States climatically and other- 

 wise for the production of forests. 

 Favorable conditions of rainfall and 

 soil for splendid forest development 

 exist throughout the State. It is now 

 known that every acre in the forest 

 areas, where there is any soil whatever, 

 will ultimately produce good forests. 

 There is no reason why the Adiron- 

 dacks should not eventually be covered 

 with as fine a forest as can now be 

 found anywhere in the Black Forest 

 or other forest regions in Europe. 

 Again, market conditions are unexcelled. 

 The forest sections of the State are well 

 equipped with streams and are easily 

 accessible by rail. 



Several suggestions have been made 

 for the protection and proper use of 

 the State's natural resources. These 

 are (1) the repeal of the Constitutional 

 provision forbidding the cutting of 

 trees upon State lands, (2) opening of 

 State forests for recreation places for 

 all the people, (3) an increase of the 

 State's holdings of forest lands, (4) ex- 

 tension of the present system of pro- 

 tection, and (5) the introduction of 

 practical economic methods of repro- 

 duction. 



Seeking Instruction Here 



Zentaro Kawase, professor of forestry at the Imperial University of Tokio, Japan, has 

 been making a tour of the national forests of this country to learn the government's 

 methods of selling timber and of reforestation. 



