306 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



wood men during the last year removed the spruce trees, large and small, from 

 1 1 1,000 acres, or from an area of 173 square miles. 



If the total product of the Adirondack forests last year — spruce, hemlock, pine 

 and hardwoods — lumber and pulpwood — were shipped by rail, it would require over 

 forty thousand cars to transport it, and it would make a railway train 225 miles long. 

 There can be no error as to these quantities. They are not mere estimates, made to 

 support some theory. The figures in the following tables showing the amount of 

 timber consumed at each mill are the ones taken from the office books of the 

 respective firms or individuals, and forwarded to us in writing by the manufacturers 

 themselves. 



Over two thirds of the Great Forest of Northern New York has now been 

 "lumbered"; that is, the merchantable softwoods, the spruce, pine and hemlock, have 

 been culled out, leaving a hardwood forest. There remains about 1,200,000 acres 

 from which the spruce has not been removed, or which, having been partly lumbered 

 several years ago, contain a partial crop of conifers, mostly small trees. But a part of 

 these spruce lands belongs, to the Forest Preserve, on which no lumbering at present is 

 permitted, owing to the restrictions in the forestry clause of the new State constitution, 

 and which narrows down the available supply of spruce to a much smaller area. It 

 seems now that, if the present rate of cutting continues, most of our saw mills and pulp 

 mills will be closed within thirteen years for a lack of timber, or be obliged to bring 

 their supply from Canada. Before that time, however, the State may be ready to sell 

 timber, so far as it can be done without detriment to the public forests. But there is 

 no forestry plan, however liberal, which would permit an annual cutting equal to the 

 present consumption of timber, or anything like it; and, if the Canadian government 

 places the expected export duty on saw logs and pulpwood, little relief can be 

 obtained in that quarter. The rapidity with which the Adirondack land owners are 

 cutting over their woodlands recalls to mind the old fable of the goose that laid the 

 golden egg, and its untimely fate at the hands of the enterprising owner. 



The condition of affairs in our Northern forest, as regards the rapid diminution in 

 timber supply, shows clearly the wisdom of the State policy, which seeks to make 

 some provision for a future permanent timber supply and the continuance of the great 

 industries dependent on it. 



It should be stated here, as it has been done before, that the operations of our 

 lumbermen do not seriously impair the protective capacity of our forests. The culling 

 out of the comparatively small percentage of merchantable species does not prevent 

 the forest from exercising its natural and beneficent functions. There still remains a 

 covering of trees, sufficient in number and density to protect the various watersheds, 

 conserve moisture, exert favorable climatic influences, and form a desirable retreat for 



