of New York 



in the nature of immediate programs of work have been a 

 necessity to save our rapidly diminishing forests. 



Now the time is at hand for a popular text covering in 

 detail the life, habits and uses of trees, those materials out 

 of which our structure of forest conservation is to be built. 



You will begin the study of this book as a public duty, 

 and will find it a personal pleasure; you will learn about the 

 trees of your State, and will appreciate more fully the heri- 

 tage you possess; you will join that tree-planting army which 

 you have already heard more or less about, and will have 

 increased the scope of your usefulness as a good citizen. 



A timely word at all times in favor of conservation is a 

 habit worth cultivation and one which will not in any sense 

 upset the economics or politics of the commonwealth. Read, 

 therefore, and be prepared to say that word, in an intelligent 

 and convincing manner. And then, "Say it with trees!" 



FORESTRY IN NEW YORK— PAST, 

 PRESENT AND FUTURE 



By Nelson Courtlandt Brown, Acting Dean 



New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University 



WHEN Hendrik Hudson first cruised up the river which 

 now bears his name, and the early Dutch settlers 

 pushed westward along the Mohawk Valley, they found one 

 of the finest primeval forests to be seen anywhere. The 

 entire State of New York was then covered with a magnifi- 

 cent primal forest — great stands of beautiful white pine 

 thronged the Hudson Valley and central and southwestern 

 parts of the State. The great Adirondack and Catskill 

 regions were crowned with heavy forests of red spruce, white 

 pine, and hemlock. Interspersed with them, and throughout 

 the remainder of the State, were beech, birch and maple. In 

 the southern and central parts of the State there were chestnut, 

 many varieties of oaks, ash, elm, basswood, etc. 



In 1850 New York was the great center of lumber produc- 

 tion and Albany was the greatest lumber market. The heavy 

 cutting went on until in 1926 New York State was the 27th 

 on the list of lumber producing states. It then spent yearly 

 from sixty to eighty million dollars for freight to bring 

 lumber from the South and Northwest. It could and should 

 grow most of its needed forest products within the State. 



