Reform in Forestry Methods 237 



forests. The demand came almost exclusively 

 from persons who had no business interests con- 

 nected with forest exploitation, and many of the 

 most enthusiastic friends of the forests, in the 

 newspapers and elsewhere, had but very slender 

 information on the subject. All they knew was 

 that forests were being destroyed, that such de- 

 struction was detrimental to the climate, waterflow, 

 and fertility of the soil, and that the forests were 

 the great recreation grounds of the people. They 

 were determined that this destruction of forests 

 must stop, and the convention did what the peo- 

 ple demanded. A clause was inserted in the con- 

 stitution prohibiting entirely the cutting of timber 

 on public lands. Consequently, the magnificent 

 state forests of New York, comprising over half a 

 million of acres, are doomed to lie idle and useless 

 until this well-meant but ill-advised provision has 

 been repealed. The State of New York, however, 

 has given other States a good example in not only 

 appropriating large sums of money for the acquisi- 

 tion of additional forest lands, but also establish- 

 ing a fairly efficient system of fire police. As a 

 result of this. New York suffers less from forest 

 fires at the present day than probably any other 

 State of the Union. 



It would swell this chapter to unreasonable 

 length were we to insert an enumeration of all 

 that has been done by the legislative and admin- 

 istrative action of the various state governments 

 towards a solution of the forestry question. Some 



