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November, and continues for those two or three months, and that is 

 the time when the cutting is most likely to be done; then the rest of 

 the time during the rest of the winter, or during the early part of the 

 winter, the logs are piled up and skidded before the heavy snow 

 comes, then when the heavy snow falls they draw them to the rivers. 



Q. What part of the Adirondack region do you find it the most 

 difficult to secure conviction for trespasses ? 



A. Well, I haven't had experience enough with the commission in 

 that particular to be able to state; but I have found it in the locality 

 where I have been up there in Hamilton county and in Essex county 

 difficult to get the evidence upon which to base the suit. 



Q. And, "having obtained the evidence, do you find it difficult to 

 secure a conviction by a jury ? 



A. Yes, sir; it is because if this man happens to be a poor man who 

 is being prosecuted, he has the sympathy of his friends and neigh- 

 bors, and the very men who are on the jury are men possibly who 

 have been engaged in some such operations themselves, and I found 

 in going into the woods that the general spirit of the people and the 

 general feeling has been that it is no crime, no harm whatever, to take 

 the logs from State land; they have been bred and brought up in that 

 belief. 



Q. Do the same feelings prevail in the country all abound the park? 



A. So far as I have been the feeling is somewhat changed now, and 

 they are beginning to feel that the State timber should be cared for 

 as well as that of private individuals, but that feeling it was difficult 

 to combat; men we would call, in this locality honest, straight, law- 

 abiding citizens would consider it no crime whatever to take a few 

 logs from State land, and with that feeling it required some finesse in 

 dealing with these men to have them understand what we believed to 

 be right. 



Q. Do you suggest any additional safeguards that can be employed 

 other than those that the commission have made to secure greater 

 security for the timber on the State land ? 



A. Well, as it struck me, the most important thing that would stop 

 a great deal of trespassing, if there could be careful, full and com- 

 plete surveys made of the lots; it is a very expensive proceeding; if 

 the lots could be surveyed by the State, its own land and the lines 

 marked out clearly, then no man would have an excuse for cutting 

 over the line, and when he goes on his own lot and thinks he knows 

 where the lines are and finds no line-mark at all, his excuse is often, 

 "The line was here, it wasn't plainly marked; I couldn't see itj" I 

 believe if the State would adopt some method of having its land sur- 



