FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 27 



forests; but it can not consistently or legally ask that the joint owner shall tie himself 

 up also by any such questionable management of his property. 



True, the State can, in such cases, call for a partition of interest, and under a 

 provision of the Forestry Law have its share of any lot set apart. But that would 

 not prevent the joint owner from cutting over the area thus set apart for him, and 

 thereby endangering the State's portion of uncut forest by his slash and fallen tree- 

 tops, which may take fire at any time. 



There is one township in which the State owns an undivided half in twenty-four 

 lots. These lots, which contain 160 acres each, are contiguous and form a solid 

 block. Now, these lots will be entirely cut over by the joint owner, and half the 

 avails paid to the State ; or else the Commission must call for a partition of interest. 

 In the latter case the party would cut the timber on the half lots set apart, and 

 the State would be left with twenty-four separate patches of eighty acres each, and 

 each one of which would soon be surrounded on all sides by a slashing of newly felled 

 timber. The proper thing to do is to buy the other undivided interest as a protective 

 measure. But there must be an appropriation before this can be done. This is only 

 one of many similar cases. 



Whiteface Mountain, at Lake Placid, the most beautiful peak in the Adirondacks, 

 whose southern slope is owned by the State jointly with other parties, will soon be cut 

 over for timber and pulpwood, unless some action is taken for providing money to buy 

 the joint owners out, and this department, otherwise, will be powerless to stop this 

 piece of vandalism. 



An appropriation would be specially advantageous at this time to enable the State 

 to buy certain small parcels of land for the purpose of consolidating some of its large 

 holdings. The management and protection of the large blocks of forest thus formed 

 would thereby become simplified. There would no longer be any excuse for entrance 

 on that territory, and consequently these woods could be protected from fire and 

 timber .thieves at a far less expense than at present. A glance at the map will show 

 the importance of making such purchases in Benson township and the Oxbow tract, 

 Hamilton County; in Townships Twenty-six and Thirty, Essex count}-; and in the 

 towns of St. Armand and North Elba, near Lake Placid. 



Any appropriation that may be made should contain a provision permitting the 

 expenditure of some part of it in enlarging and consolidating the areas of State land 

 in the Catskill Preserve. The forests of that region, part of which are situated on the 

 Mohawk- Hudson watershed, and the large number of summer residents that frequent 

 the delightful resorts in the Catskill counties, demand some such action. During the 

 summer ten people go to the Catskills, where one goes to the North Woods. It is near 

 New York and the populous districts of the Hudson Valley. For $1.75 one can buy 



