REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 373 



It appears especially desirable to present these latter data in a single compilation, 

 because they are widely scattered, never having been, so far as the English literature 

 on the subject is concerned, with the exception of some of the annual reports of the 

 Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture and Bulletin No. 7 

 on Forest Influences by that department, even approximately brought together. 

 Before proceeding to the main discussion we will briefly consider a few of 

 the cognate heads. 



WHAT THE ADIRONDACK REGION IS GOOD FOR. 



The climate of the Adirondack region is mostly too severe for the ordinary 

 agriculture of the low lands of the State of New York. During the last four years, in 

 which the author has been more or less in the Northern forests, frosts have occurred 

 there each season, at an elevation of about 1,800 feet, in both of the months of June 

 and August, July being the one month of the year entirely free from frost. Under 

 these circumstances it is impossible to raise corn, wheat or barley. Oats, potatoes 

 and meadow grass are the ordinary agricultural crops raised, and even these only 

 with difficulty because of the vast areas of boulders with which nearly the whole 

 region is covered. As an economic proposition, therefore, the Adirondack region is 

 good for but three purposes, namely: (1) For cultivating timber, which can be easily 

 done under rational forestry administration without prejudice to the other interests; 

 (2) for water storage, which, because of the numerous natural reservoir sites may be 

 more cheaply carried out here than in any other locality in the eastern states; and (3) 

 for a great State Park, which ultimately, by the construction of good wagon roads, 

 may be made an easily accessible pleasure resort for the people of the State of New York. 



OBJECTIONS TO FORESTRY AND WATER STORAGE. 



Rather singularly the great mass of the people who go into the woods for pleasure 

 regard forestry and water storage as inimical to their interests. They assume, indeed, 

 that the Great Northern Forest should be preserved as a pleasure resort alone; and 

 many with whom the author has conversed are apparently unable to see that the State 

 owes any duty to its manufacturing interests. This position of the woods-going 

 pleasure seekers, fishermen, hunters, etc., while extremely unsatisfactory, has still a 

 certain rational basis underlying it all. It is due very largely to the indifference of 

 the lumbermen in former years, when many acts of vandalism were laid at their door 

 though to some extent unjustly. 



