REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 269 



The Adirondack Park which is situated within the Great Forest, contains 3,004,855 

 acres, the area within the blue line as shown on the last edition of the Adirondack 

 Map. The lands within the boundaries of this tract have been carefully classified, with 

 the following result : 



ACRES. 



Primitive forest, ...,,,,... 1,139,593 



Lumbered forest, 

 Denuded lands, 

 AVaste lands, 

 Burned areas, 

 Water surfaces, 

 Wild meadows, 

 Improved land, 



1-627,955 

 61,009 



22,424 

 18,220 



59.I 11 

 724 



75> 8l 9 

 3,004,855 



By the term Primitive Forest is meant the lands on which there have been no 

 lumbering operations, and on which all the spruce, hemlock, balsam, and hardwoods 

 are still standing. Much of the white pine was removed from the Adirondack region 

 over forty years ago. But at that time no spruce was cut, and so the term primitive 

 or " virgin " forest means to-day the tracts on which all the spruce is still standing 

 together with the other species. There are several townships, however, on which the 

 white pine still remains, and on which no lumberman ever swung an axe. These 

 tracts reveal a primeval forest in all its wonderful characteristics, and present the same 

 appearance that they did before the white man ever traversed their lonely wilds. 



The term Lumbered Land, as used in the preceding table of areas, includes the 

 tracts from which the spruce, and, perhaps, some other conifers, have been removed, 

 but on which the other species still remain, forming, for the most part, a hardwood forest 

 whose dense shade and tangled undergrowth enables it to exercise, unimpaired, all its 

 protective functions. The proportion of spruce is generally so small that its removal 

 makes little change in the appearance of the forest or decrease in the mass of foliage. 

 After three or four years, when the tops and limbs left by the lumbermen have been 

 crushed to the ground by successive snowfalls and rotted there, and the underbrush 

 has concealed the stumps, persons unacquainted with the composition of these forests 

 would not notice any trace of the log chopper's work. Seated in a boat on some 

 Adirondack lake and viewing the densely wooded slopes that rise on every side like 

 some grand amphitheatre, one can determine the lumbered portions only by the 

 absence of the spruce tops which no longer appear at intervals above the foliage of the 

 broad leaved trees. There are places, however, where the spruce and hemlock grow 

 in clumps, and where their removal is very apt to be followed by a clearing. 



