Canadian Forest rij Journal, November, 1917 



1385 



by Dr. B. E. Fcrno\\ . Ihere was 

 much discussion and ari>ument at the 

 time as to the wisdom of the pk\ns 

 adopted and the opposition to it 

 developed to such an extent that the 

 whole of the experiment had to be 

 abandoned before it was well begun, 

 but sufficient remains to show what 

 would have been the results if the 

 experiment had been carried through 

 to completion and the showing is 

 one to which Dr. Fernow has no 

 reason to be ashamed to have his 

 name attached in any manner, and 

 public opinion which at the time of 

 the inception of the experiment was 

 inclined to be severely critical has 

 changed its attitude and is now^ in- 

 clined to praise. 



Demonstration Tract Created 



Shortly, the history of the tract 

 is as follows: — 



The New York State College of 

 Forestry was established by an act 

 of the State Legislature in 1898 as 

 a department of Cornell University 

 and in the same act provision was 

 made to establish a demonstration 

 forest of not more than 30,000 acres 

 for the purposes of education and 

 instruction in the principles and 

 practice of scientific forestry. The 

 forest area obtained for the purpose 

 is located in Franklin County on 

 the Raquette River and had been 

 partly logged over by the Santa Clara 

 Lumber . Company. The headquar- 

 ters of the tract were at Axton and 

 the town of Tupper Lake, a saw mill 

 centre located on the Ottawa and 

 New York Railway, was within easy 

 reach, being only three miles from 

 the western boundary of the tract. 

 About one-half of the property was 

 virgin timber, the other half more or 

 less culled of pine and spruce and a 

 small portion burned over land. The 

 stand was composed of sugar maple, 

 yellow birch and beech, mixed with 

 spruce and hemlock, and in some 

 parts with white pine. Most of the 

 merchantable pine had been taken 

 out in the lumbering operations and 

 also considerable of the spruce. There 

 were also balsam and cedar swamps 

 and the burnt over lands were largely 



grown up to aspen, poplar and white 

 birch. In quantity the hardwoods 

 were to the softwoods in the pro- 

 portion of two to one. 



Supremacn of Conifers 



The problem to be dealt with and 

 the methods proposed may best be 

 staled in Dr. Fernow's own words: — 



"The most valuable crop to be 

 grown in the Adirondacks — and, as 

 for that, in most locations of the 

 Northeastern United States — and es- 

 pecially for the State, are the conifers. 

 Coniferous w^ood represents three- 

 quarters of the total wood consump- 

 tion of this country and there is no 

 reason to expect a change. Spruce 

 and white pine hold now and promise 

 for all future to hold the most im- 

 portant position in the northern mar- 

 ket, hence their reproduction should 

 be the main object of the forester's 

 skill. Mixed with the hardwoods, as 

 they originally were, the white pine, 

 culled out as the most easily market- 

 able wood, has been almost eradicated 

 in the Adirondacks, because it cannot 

 reproduce under the shade of the 

 remaining deciduous trees and spruce ; 

 the spruce being more tolerant of shade, 

 has persisted in producing young 

 growth but by culling it out of the mixed 

 forest, as it is culled in the usual 

 lumberman's fashion, with the hard- 

 woods left, not only is the develop- 

 ment of the young spruces retarded 

 and stunted, but in the composition 

 of the crop it must, by necessity, 

 take a less prominent part. 



Hardwoods Superfluous 



"It is then the reduction and re- 

 moval of the old hardwoods, which 

 alone assures success in the silvi- 

 cultural program of re-establishing 

 and giving advantage to the conifers. 

 If this program be conceded as cor- 

 rect, then it might appear even good 

 business policy to be satisfied if only 

 the cost of removal of the undesirable 

 material were covered by its sale. 

 To find a market for the hardwoods, 

 minor material as well as logs, is the 

 key to the solution of the silvicultural 

 problem; increase in the proportion 



