May 9, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



12 







Leasing State Forest Lands. 



THE bill empowering two of the Adirondack Commis- 

 sioners to lease tive-acre tracts of the State forest 

 lands for terms of five years has been amended in the 

 Senate to make the consent of the entire Board necessary 

 for the confirmation of any lease. This is better, or rather 

 it is less objectionable than the original bill ; but if it is 

 dangerous for the State to grant these unusual powers to 

 two men, it certainly is neither safe nor wise to grant them 

 to three men. No pri\'ate individual has any claims upon 

 the lands set apart by special enactment for public use. 

 A refusal to give one the use of five acres for five years, 

 or of a hundred acres for a hundred years, does not conflict 

 with any of his rights as a citizen. A lease of any amount 

 of this State Forest for Any length of time to any person 

 for his private use, is clearly a special privilege. If such 

 privilege is granted to one man, another can claim it with 

 equal force. The law will be an advertisement to every 

 one to come and take possession of the spot that suits 

 his particular fancy, until the people of the State will be 

 warned off as trespassers from the most attractive por- 

 tions of their own land. If the price is made lo^v it will 

 all be "located" in a few months. If a high price is de- 

 manded, just complaint will be made that the rich are 

 favored as against their less prosperous neighbors. 



The bill is vicious in its essence and its evils are not 

 mitigated by any check or restraint upon what are its 

 most dangerous tendencies. No restrictions against im- 

 proper e.xercise of this power are provided, but the com- 

 missioners are invested with absolute powers in convey- 

 ing away the State's right in its own lands. These officials 

 are enabled, under this act, to lease and renew leases of 

 tracts situated anywhere, to whomsoever they may elect, 

 and upon whatever conditions they may prescribe. They 

 are not required even to make the terms of such leases 

 public. In short, they are released from all the restraints 

 that experience has proved necessary for the safe adminis- 

 tration of public trusts, so that the dangerous principle of 

 permitting the alienation from the State of its control 

 over its own lands is made still more dangerous in prac- 

 tice, by a neglect to prescribe the limitations and to set 

 up the safeguards which ordinary prudence dictates in all 

 cases where unusual powers are delegated to an agent. 



One of the Commissioners has lately declared that he 

 does not favor the principle of leasing, but that he wishes 

 the right to grant leases to the two hundred persons who 

 already have actual possession of portions of the State 

 Forest in the North Woods and elsewhere. That is, he 

 asks for the law to relieve himself of the trouble of decid- 

 ing the question forced upon him by the presence of these 

 squatters. The Commissioners shrink from the task of 

 ejecting these worthy people, and they ask to be allowed 

 therefore to confirm them in the possession of the land they 

 have occupied because it suited them. But if they shrink 

 from dealing with the hundreds now occupying the State 

 Forest, they surely will be unable to stand before the 

 thousands who will be demanding the same privilege under 

 the new law. It is argued that the scheme can be tried a 

 few years and if it proves unsatisfactory it can then be repeal- 

 ed. But if a Commission feels inadequate to treat with 

 a few men who have possessed themselves of State land 

 without authority, how can it hope to meet with proper 

 spirit an army of lessees who hold the lands on a tenure 

 legally granted by the Commission itself? Clearly such a 

 law would add to the embarrassment of the Commission, 

 not to speak of the increased labor it would entail and the 

 temptations it would offer. It is a bad measure from every 

 point of view and it should never become a law. 



How the Bald Cypress Converts Lakes into Forests. 



THE natural processes by which the earth we inhabit 

 is torn down or built up are extremely interesting 

 subjects of study. The comparative facilities for natural 

 drainage determine more surely than any other agency 



what the future condition of an}' territory will be. In 

 hilly and mountainous countries the depressions would 

 gain by surface wash what the elevations lose, but for 

 the innumerable water courses that are continually carr}'- 

 ing that wash to the sea. Where, however, the surface is 

 nearly level and the water courses have but slight fall, the 

 depressions receive nearly the entire wash occasioned by 

 rainfall and the principal accession from the growth and 

 decay of vegetation. 



Of countries that are growing through the last named 

 agencies no better example could be found than is 

 furnished by the Florida peninsula-. Its surface, with 

 slight exceptions, is either level or gently undulating. The 

 waters of Florida are clear, containing no earthy matter, 

 and they have so slight a fall that the ocean tides affect them 

 in places a hundred miles inland. A large portion of the 

 rainfall, probably more than half, never reaches the running 

 streams, but escapes by evaporation, or by percolation, to 

 underground channels. In rainy seasons .much of the 

 country is overflowed, and in dry seasons the lakes be- 

 come very shallow and the ponds dry. 



A country in which there are such alternating condi- 

 tions, is eminently suited to the growth of rank and diver- 

 sified vegetation, both herbaceous and arborescent. In 

 the hummocks and in the low pine woods, which are 

 seldom visited by fire, the growth of vegetation continues 

 almost the year round. Where such growth has progressed 

 unchecked on uplands, the best lands for immediate culti- 

 vation are found, while the lowlands are still more valua- 

 ble, if they can be drained. In the ponds a deposit of 

 muck is being formed, which, when sufficiently elevated, 

 will feed a different class of plants, from those that have 

 contributed to its formation. 



When we come to study this leveling process that is 

 going on in the lowland of the South, and in Florida in 

 particular, we are led to the conclusion that no agency 

 has so much to do with it as the peculiar habit of growth 

 of the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distkhuni). This tree is 

 ])eculiarly adapted to the unstable soil found in ponds and 

 alluvial river bottoms. It has a massive base, few and 

 short branches and scanty foliage. Thus the centre of 

 gravity is near the ground, and this, with the peculiar 

 root growth, renders the uprooting of the tree by wind 

 practically impossible. 



The Cypress has a very broad base, which tapers rapidly 

 into the main trunk. This is a characteristic of other trees 

 found in like situations, notably the Tupelo {Nyssa uaijlora), 

 the Svi'amp Gum [Nyssa aquatica), the Swamp Ash 

 {Fraxinus platycarpa), and the Swamp Privet {Forestiera 

 acuminata). The Cypress is provided with additional 

 means of maintaining its equilibrium. Where the situation 

 favors a large growth (the Cypress sometimes measures 

 ten feet in diameter as many feet from the ground), thin 

 buttresses spread out from the base in all directions. This 

 feature lends to a great Cypress swamp an almost labyrin- 

 thine appearance, especially in dry seasons, when the 

 bases of the trees are left bare. The Cypress has also a 

 system of strong surface roots, by the interlocking of 

 which neighboring trees give each other support. 



The surface roots of the Cypress have the peculiar habit 

 of giving out excrescences, which rise several feet from the 

 surface, in the form of domes, turrets and arches, or in 

 wrapping other objects with a vine-like growth. These 

 excrescences — commonly called knees — are hollow and of 

 spongy texture, and their growth hastens the time when 

 the localities they now occupy will become too elevated 

 to suit such forms of vegetation. 



In the shallow lakes and ponds that abound in the low 

 Pine woods of the South the Cypress does most effectual 

 work as a land builder. Germinating on a miry margin 

 or shoal spot, in a season of low water, the young tree be- 

 comes established, sends out its raft of roots to support its 

 spindling top, and as it grows pushes upward knees, which 

 serve to detain floating substances and to give support to 

 such objects as are in condition for growth. In a dry 



