44 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



land at the head waters of streams; and the state, though 

 it has not exercised the power, possesses the constitutional 

 authority, as a police regulation, to prohibit a private 

 owner from cutting trees less than eight inches in diam- 

 eter, breast high, at the sources of our principal streams. 

 Scenery and water ! Just for these two things alone 

 the public has reason to concern itself with forestry. 



Climate is an additional ground for public interest in 

 forestry. Air in the forest is a little warmer in winter 

 and a little cooler in summer than the air of open country. 

 Forest air, like that of the sea, is richer in ozone, and 

 therefore healthier, than the air of open country, and 

 especially than the air of cities. The forest is a barrier 

 to the hot wind from the south and to the cold wind from 

 the north. 



The public has rights in the forest for means of recre- 

 ation. Mrs. Browning, the greatest of woman poets in 

 the English language, wrote in a letter from Italy: "In 

 the deep of the pine forests, which have such a strange 

 dialect in the silence they speak with. " It was not for 

 the value of the timber that the state of New York paid a 

 million dollars for 250,000 acres in the Adirondacks, but 

 because tired people love to visit the woods for recreation 

 and rest. When woods are managed according to for- 

 estry they are provided with good roads, and are dehght- 

 ful resorts. 



The forest, properly managed, is a covert for useful 

 game. 



It is largely on account of these collateral benefits from 

 forests that the pubhc is interested and should, wherever 

 possible, demand that they be administered on forestry 

 principles. At present, however, most of the timber 

 lands in this state are the property of private individuals 

 and corporations who will, and for their financial safety 

 must, cut and remove the timber therefrom as rapidly as 

 they can find a good market for it, and without taking any 



