434 



FOREST STATISTICS: NEW YORK. 



NEW YORK. 



The first attempt to procure statistics relating to forest products in 

 this State is found in a circular letter addressed in 1791 by the Society 

 for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures to the friends 

 and promoters of rural economy. Among other queries were the fol- 

 lowing: 



8. Forest trees.— Do you know any facts concerning the propagation of tho locust tree? 

 What can be done toward introducing the white mulberry tree? In parts of the 

 country where wood grows scarce, would it be proper and profitable to raise in nurs- 

 eries and transplant hickory, chestnut, beech, ash, and other trees for fencing and luel? 

 Or would it be advisable 'to make hedges of whitethorn, prim holly, yew, or other 

 shrubs?— and cultivate peat and turf for making fires? 



No general results followed these inquiries, and no statistics were 

 obtained under State authority before 1855. The national census of 

 1850, and since, has reported the acres improved and unimproved, the 

 general results of State and general census returns in this particular 



having been as follows : 



Land in farms. 



' Assuming the .area of the State to be 47,000 square miles, or 30.oeO,000 acres. ^^ 

 =0f thi^ 5,679,870 is reported as woodland, and the rest as " other unimproved. 



The total area of the State, according to Burr's Atlas, is 28,297,143 

 acres ; and in 1875, 27,850,625 acres (exclusive of New York and Kings 

 •Counties) were assessed. The areas of cities, villages, &c., and a large 

 amount of wild lands not in farms, are omitted from the census, and 

 this will account for the discrepancies above given. 



In 1875, for the first time, an effort was made to obtain statistics of 

 .the timber lands of the State, with the result shown in the following 

 table :i 



I The instructions directed enumerators to report as " improved lands " all land under 

 •cultivation or improvement, including pasture, meadow, arable land, and, in short, 

 everything that had been reclaimed from a state of nature, deducting highw.-iys, lakes, 

 and ponds of water, when the latter exceeded ten acres. " Unimproved lands were 

 .defined as woodlands, swamps, marshes, and other vacant lauds, including wild lands, 

 where information could be procured. With reference to woodlands, the instructions 

 -were as follows : , i j • ^i, 



"The acres in this column will form a part or the tehole of those embraced in the 

 preceding column as ' acres unimproved.' You should enter here the amount ot timber 

 land; that is, land covered with trees suitable for sawing into timber, or hewing into 



