FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 273 



But along the northern, western, and southern boundary it was deemed advisable 

 to leave a fringe of forest land outside the line to supply the wants of the resident 

 population who must have some place from which to obtain their supply of building 

 material, fencing and fuel, none of which can be obtained from the State forest, owing 

 to the restrictions in the forestry clause of the new constitution. This matter of fuel 

 has become a troublesome question in some localities along the eastern border of the 

 Park, where the State ownership extends to the extreme edge of the forest. 



In a previous report to the Legislature this Department urged the propriety of 

 establishing a forestry experiment station on some part of the Forest Preserve. The 

 suggestion then made has proved fruitful, the State having purchased a tract of land 

 recently for that purpose. The management of this forest tract has been entrusted to 

 Cornell University by Act of Legislature ; and by the same law the University is 

 " authorized and empowered to create and establish" the "New York State College 

 of Forestry," for the maintenance of which an appropriation is also made. 



The original plan, as suggested by this Department, for undertaking something in 

 the line of conservative forest management, contemplated some experimental work 

 with a view to ascertaining what permanent revenue a tract of primitive forest would 

 yield when the amount of the annual cutting was not allowed to exceed that of the 

 annual growth. 



The matured trees, having been marked, were to be sold to the highest 

 bidder, who, in removing them, would be subject to such restrictions in road 

 building, felling of timber, and protection of young trees, as an intelligent system of 

 forestry would require. Part of the revenue thus obtained could be set aside for forest 

 improvement and increasing the productivity of the tract ; the balance could be turned 

 over to the State. Such an experiment could have been carried on from the start 

 without asking the State for any money, the extent of the operations being governed 

 by the revenues previously received. Starting with a tract of primeval forest already 

 grown, such an experiment would have involved no expenditures by the State; it 

 would have been economical and instructive, and, it is hoped that in time some such 

 work can yet be undertaken. But the forestry clause of the new State Constitution 

 prohibits anything of the kind on the part of the State ; and so the plan was 

 necessarily entrusted to a second party, to whom the land vas deeded in trust. The 

 State, accordingly, bought a tract of 30,000 acres of forest land, situated in townships 

 23 and 26, Franklin county, which, under the provisions of the law (see Appendix), is 

 placed under the management of the State College of Forestry of Cornell University. 

 The plan of operations contemplated by the College officials is far more extensive than 

 the simple experiment proposed by this Department, but it is hoped and confidently 

 expected that the undertaking will prove successful. 

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