APRIL 5, 1901.] 
ticed make it an impossible guide in the 
present case, except as to principles, while the 
manner of their application has taken perforce 
the form of original experimental study of a 
most difficult problem. 
The director ably defends the policy of har- 
vesting the crop as carried out at the College 
Forest, a policy made possible by special legis- 
lation, which has permitted the entering into 
contracts for the disposal of the old and de- 
crepit hardwoods forming the bulk of the culled 
forest. Such contract has been made with the 
Brooklyn Cooperage Company, under which a 
stave and heading factory and a wood alcohol 
plant are being erected at Tupper Lake and con- 
nected by rail with the College forest. The 
prices obtained are fair market rates, better 
than private owners of similar property in the 
Adirondacks have been able to get the present 
year, and the experiment, in spite of an unusu- 
ally unfavorable winter, promises to be self- 
supporting. It is expected that about 50 per 
cent. of the area cut over during the time cov- 
ered by the report will have to be planted. 
White pine and Norway spruce will be em- 
ployed, using both plants and seeds, and adding 
elm and ash, with a few other species. 
Various important questions have arisen in 
connection with the actual and possible yield 
of Adirondack hardwoods, and these, together 
with the ideals and practical limitations of 
American forestry, are carefully discussed. It 
is shown that the American market is the essen- 
tial factor which makes the practice of forestry 
as a business different in the United States from 
that of Germany, and that this, again, is due 
to the difference in density and distribution of 
population. Accordingly, the German wood 
market is mostly local, steady and continuous. 
A sustained annual yield is the best business 
policy, and a thorough utilization down to the 
small brush is possible through local consump- 
tion by the dense poor population. The Ameri- 
can wood market, on the other hand, is essen- 
tially continental; the harvest is transported 
to centers of consumption, and cheap transpor- 
tation over long distances is the keynote of 
marketing it profitably. This requirement in 
many districts rules out a thorough utilization 
of the product, and inferior parts of the har- 
SCIENCE. 
543 
vest must be left unused. Hence a realization 
of the theoretically ‘normal forest’ with a so- 
called ‘sustained yield’ is at present impracti- 
cable in America from a business point of view. 
And, moreover, unfair systems of taxation dis- 
courage the attempts at such management that 
otherwise might be made. The working plan 
of the College, therefore—carrying out the aim 
of the management to attain the best that is 
attainable under existing conditions—is simply 
to remove the old crop as fast as the market 
and practical considerations permit, and replace 
it by a crop of better composition and promise ; 
that is, to practice silviculture. 
The basis of an American system of forestry is 
summed up in three primary essentials : 
1. Better protection of forest property, in- 
cluding rational methods of taxation—a subject 
of legislation. 
2. More thorough utilization of the forest 
crop—a subject of wood technology and de- 
velopment of means of transportation and har- 
vesting. 
8. Silvicultural methods of harvesting, so as 
to produce a desirable new crop, or else artificial 
reforestation—the main concern of forestry. 
Planting operations on burnt areas have been 
continued and there are now ninety-five acres 
planted, chiefly with white pine, Douglas spruce 
and Norway spruce, the last named having thus 
far proved most satisfactory as to cheapness, 
rapidity of growth and endurance of drought 
and frost. Two nurseries have been established 
in which already about a million seedlings of 
various conifers have been raised for use in 
planting and for experiments in acclimatization. 
An experienced forester, whose professional 
education was had in Switzerland, is in charge 
of all the technical work, such as supervision of 
felling, planting and nursery work, conducting 
of experiments, collecting of data and statistics, 
and making reports, while the purely business 
arrangements, such as hiring of labor, purchase 
and sale of materials, care of property, and the 
book-keeping and sealing are in charge of a 
superintendent familiar with such duties. A 
logging foreman of experience is in charge of 
the crew and camp, supervising the labor. The 
College is now in a position to dispose annually 
of upwards of 15,000 cords of wood for fuel and 
