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358 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



There is one serious drawback in existing arrangements which could readily be 

 improved. It is the manner of paying for the service of fire fighting. At present, 

 bills are audited and paid by the towns; the tedious delay of such payment is dis- 

 couraging to the men who have to wait for the hard-earned money for many months. 

 Authority to make the necessary outlay on the part of the Commission, for which the 

 .Board may then seek reimbursement through the town, is the ready remedy. 



Technical Problems. 



While these problems in the mechanics of administration are readily understood — 

 and their solution is not difficult — the problems of technical management of the 

 property are more difficult to solve. What is to be done with the forest owned and 

 protected by the State ? What policy is to be followed in its treatment, and what 

 methods are to be applied ? 



The first legislation, instituting the Forest Commission, had in view the application 

 of forestry methods to the management of the property ; but the Commission failed to 

 devise such technical management, and the people, as is well known, by constitutional 

 amendment restricted the activities of the Commission by forbidding the cutting of 

 trees on State lands, and thereby ruling out a large share of forestry work. 



Knowing the history of this amendment we can assert that it was intended, not to 

 establish a policy of non-use, and to exclude forever the application of such forestry 

 work as requires the use of the ax, but rather to delay it until conditions should be 

 more favorable for the employment of technical forestry management. If nothing 

 else were to warrant this conclusion, the establishment of the New York State College 

 of Forestry, with its experimental forest area within the limits of the proposed State 

 Forest Preserve, must stand as an earnest that, ultimately, technical forest manage- 

 ment is expected and intended, and not merely leaving Nature to take care of the 

 forest cover. 



There is, to be sure, no haste necessary to engage in such technical work; but 

 even now the Commission is in position to do considerable preliminary work and 

 prepare for the future. 



There can be no question as to the first step in attacking the problem of technical 

 management. As the physician bases his treatment on a diagnosis, so the adminis- 

 trator of a property must first become acquainted with its conditions. The first step, 

 therefore, towards a technical management of the State's forest property must be a 

 forest survey; i. e., a technical description of the conditions of each parcel in such a 

 manner that its character, conditions, and location can readily be referred to. 



