168 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



have to be recorded huge losses for the 

 French Forestry Domain. In that part 

 still actually occupied by the enemy, we 

 still hope that the amount of timber cut 

 down and carried away as booty, will 

 be much less than we are at present led 

 to believe. 



May I terminate my narrative in 

 quoting, the noble and far-seeing words 

 of that grand man among men Bernard 

 Palissy words which the lovers of 

 forests in America should cause to be 

 graven in letters of gold : 



"When I consider the value of these 

 most humble of shelters, the trees, I 



marvel at the ignorance of men, who 

 today, seem only to study how to break, 

 cut and destroy the beautiful forests 

 which their predecessors have so pre- 

 ciously guarded. They give no thought to 

 the days to come to the great damage 

 done to their children of the future. I 

 cannot sufficiently detest such a thing 

 and call it not a fault but a malediction 

 and an evil to the country, because 

 when the trees are gone all arts will 

 cease and the country be abandoned by 

 all artisans who must 'eat grass as 

 oxen,' as did Nebuchadnezzar." 



THE CRISIS IN NEW YORK 



By H. H. Chapman 



TWO measures of vital importance 

 to the future welfare of the 

 State of New York are to be 

 decided within the year; the 

 first is a reorganization of the Conserva- 

 tion Commission having control of the 

 State Forest Preserve; the second is a 

 revision of the Constitution to permit a 

 more rational use of these State posses- 

 sions. 



New York was the first American 

 State to adopt the deliberate policy of 

 retaining permanently the State tax 

 lands, and increasing these holdings by 

 purchase, on a large scale. In 1872 a 

 legislative committee advocated this 

 policy of retention, which went into 

 effect in 1883 in the Forest Preserve 

 Counties of the Adirondacks and Cats- 

 kills. Up to this time few owners 

 considered these lands worth the taxes. 

 The well nigh universal custom was to 

 cut off the pine timber and permit the 

 lands to revert to the State. Later the 

 same lands were acquired from a com- 

 plaisant Government on various flimsy 

 pretexts and the spruce or other valuable 

 timber was stripped off, when the lands 

 again reverted to the State for taxes. 

 Disgust at this slipshod procedure, and 

 a growing interest in the region as a 

 recreation ground were the underlying 



causes for the reversal of policy, by 

 which, in '83, the State declared its 

 intention of holding title to some 

 700,000 acres of tax lands. 



Even at this early day a few far- 

 sighted persons were looking forward to 

 the time when the State should devote 

 these immense areas to the practice of 

 forestry and derive a large net annual 

 revenue from the sale of timber from 

 her forest reserves, in much the same 

 way that the European state forests 

 are conducted. But these hopes have 

 been deferred for thirty years, while 

 the State wrestled with the far more 

 immediate and vital problem of safe- 

 guarding her heritage from insidious 

 attacks. Every acre of tax lands which 

 was coveted by an individual was in 

 danger of being lost to the State through 

 the numerous loopholes sanctioned by 

 the customs of a century which had 

 sought only to get rid of these lands in 

 order to raise more taxes on them. A 

 statute passed in '85 giving the State 

 absolute title to these tax lands after 

 the lapse of a reasonable period was 

 fought through the courts, and not until 

 1897, twelve years later, was its con- 

 stitutionality upheld. The burden of 

 defending the people's titles in these 

 suits, in the early days, fell on Col. 



