January 17, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



95 



WHO ARE THE OBJECTORS? 



It remains, then, to state that the Col- 

 lege of Forestry is doing what it is set to 

 do. It is harvesting from an area from 

 which the valuable part has been already 

 removed, the old, decrepit hardwood crop 

 which is rotting and becoming less and less 

 valuable, and is replacing it by a young, 

 vigorous crop of better composition. It 

 is doing this by trying to make the old 

 crop pay for the new; that is, carrying on 

 the experiment like a business venture. 



It may be of interest to inquire whence 

 the opposition to its procedure comes. 



There are those who have used this prop- 

 erty as a hunting ground, and naturally 

 desire to preserve it as such for their own 

 personal benefit. They are opposed to the 

 change from old timber to young planta- 

 tion, which only in years will again give 

 them a hunting ground. 



Again, there are those sentimentalists 

 who consider it a sin to cut a tree, over- 

 looking that their houses could not be built 

 and their homes furnished without the 

 utilization of the forest. 



There are those who mistake the situa- 

 tion and think it is the State's Forest Re- 

 serve that is being cut over. Moreover, as 

 they have made up their minds that forest 

 preservation is only to be had from non- 

 use, the forest preservation practiced by 

 the college, which lies in the philosophy 

 that all life is efficiently preserved only by 

 reproduction, does not appeal to them. 



There may also be those who know only 

 one way of treating a forest, and hence, 

 differing as doctors do, criticise the method 

 of artificial reproduction by planting, 

 which the college is in part forced, in part 

 has chosen, to follow. These recognize only 

 the culling process, which the lumberman 

 has practiced with the softwoods, as legiti- 

 mate; and advocate even that the State 

 practice it in the Forest Reserve on its 

 virgin lands, and cull out the valuable 



spruce in order to make the reserve of 

 financial use. 



While, no doubt, the gradual removal 

 system has some advantages, if properly 

 applied, it means, when applied to hard- 

 woods, which cannot be transported by 

 water, the development of an extensive sys- 

 tem of railroad transportation, which re- 

 quires funds such as the college has not 

 had at its disposal. 



NO PEAR FOR THE PRESERVE. 



The college is doing what it can do, under 

 the circumstances surrounding the prob- 

 lem, on practical business lines. It was 

 set to doing a definite, limited task. It 

 has no control of, no voice in, no relation 

 to, the management of the State Forest Pre- 

 serve, and would not, if it had, advocate' 

 the application of its methods to the State 

 Preserve. For the objects of the State 

 Preserve are entirely different from those 

 which the college tract is to serve, and 

 hence what is proper to do on an area set 

 aside for demonstration is by no means 

 proper to do or directly applicable on an 

 area set aside primarily for soil protection 

 and recreation. 



Hence no fear need be entertained that 

 the State Preserve is in danger of being 

 denuded through the agency of the college. 

 On the contrary, the college hopes to in- 

 fluence the management of the Adirondack 

 Preserve in the very opposite direction. 

 It hopes that its success in reforesting 

 burnt and waste areas will stimulate the 

 State authorities to do likewise. This fall 

 the college presented to the Forest, Fish 

 and Game Commission several thousand 

 pine and spruce seedlings, which were 

 planted by an agent of the Commission and 

 by interested landholders in the Catskill 

 Reserve. 



As a result of this first beginning the 

 Forest Commission has just contracted 

 with the College of Forestry for 420,000 



