Report of tf)e ^aperintendent of Forests. 



ALBANY, N. Y., January 2, 1900. 



To Vs)z Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission : 



GENTLEMEN. — I would respectfully submit for the consideration of your Honor- 

 able Board, in making the usual preliminary report to the Legislature, a brief state- 

 ment of the work accomplished during the past year so far as it relates to the 

 Forestry Department, passing by certain details that are reserved for the supple- 

 mentary report which will be issued at a later date. 



Although the lands of the Forest Preserve are scattered over an area of 15,000 

 square miles in the Adirondack and Catskill counties, all attempts at timber cutting 

 on State property, whether intentional or otherwise, have been promptly checked 

 before the depredations attained any considerable extent. In some of these cases 

 the trespassers claimed ownership of the land, disputing the validity of the tax sale 

 through which the title had passed from them to the State. In one case where a 

 party had gathered fallen and dead timber for firewood, it was found that live tim- 

 ber had been taken also. In a few instances the axemen of lumber or wood pulp 

 companies had, carelessly or intentionally, cut beyond the line of blazed trees that 

 marked the boundary of a State lot. But in most places the depredations were the 

 work of timber thieves who watch their opportunity to cut and haul a load of logs 

 off from a State lot whenever they think it can be done without detection. There 

 were twenty-one cases of trespass on the Preserve during the past year, each of 

 which was promptly prosecuted and a conviction obtained. Some of the parties 

 pleaded guilty and paid their fine, and one man was sentenced to imprisonment. 

 The full penalty prescribed by law was imposed and paid in most of the suits, 

 except the one in which the defendant was sent to jail. 



After deducting the costs of the various suits, the State received, in the aggre- 

 gate, the sum of $1,196.09, the penalties ranging from $7 to $460. The amount 

 received was further increased to $3,323.97 by payments made in settlement of pen- 

 alties imposed under prosecutions brought during the previous year. In addition 

 to the twenty-one cases of timber stealing mentioned, there were twelve others in 

 which suits had been commenced, but which as yet have not been brought to trial. 



The counties in which these trespasses occurred and the number in each county 



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