4 Report of Forest, Fish and Game Commission. 



Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Oneida, 

 Saratoga, St. Lawrence, Warren, Washington, Greene, Ulster and 

 Sullivan, except 



1. Lands within the limits of any village or city, and 



2. Lands not wild lands acquired by the State on foreclosure of 

 mortgages made to loan commissioners. 



The second exception renders it difficult in some instances to 

 determine whether a parcel of land belongs to the Preserve. A 

 farm property, sold under foreclosure, may contain a large tract of 

 woods or ''wild land" as well as cleared or cultivated ground. The 

 question then arises whether the portion containing the woodlands 

 does not belong to the Preserve. 



It is not always easy to draw the line between wild land and 

 pasture. Then, again, some of the areas acquired by the State 

 under foreclosure of mortgages made to loan commissioners are 

 now abandoned farms that have grown up to brush or trees, and 

 which in a few years will become second-growth forests. For these 

 reasons several lots obtained through foreclosures are included in 

 the list. 



The list contains, also, some lands acquired through tax sales, the 

 title to which may be doubtful, owing to errors on the part of the 

 assessors or tax collectors. These errors had not been discovered at 

 the time of the tax sale, and so the title to the lands passed nominally 

 to the State. As these lots -are entered upon the books of the comp- 

 troller as State land, it becomes necessary to include them here as, 

 part of the Forest Preserve. In fact, these lands with their disputed 

 titles cannot be stricken off the schedule except by order of the courts 

 or action of the Legislature. 



The large tract in Franklin county, bought by the Forest Preserve 

 Board for the use of the State College of Forestry, is included here 

 as a part of the Forest Preserve in accordance with the law which 

 provides that it "shall include the lands owned or hereafter acquired 



