REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



21 



There has been, also, an active demand for a certain class of Adirondack woodlands 

 by parties who have established or who desire to form private preserves, over one- 

 fourth of the North Woods being held and occupied at present for such purposes. 

 Then, again, the recent high prices for lumber and pulpwood resulted in extensive 

 purchases for business purposes, and many lots which in former years would have 

 been abandoned and the taxes defaulted were bought by lumbermen in order to 

 obtain the third cutting of small spruce and other conifers that yet remained on 

 these lands. 



Owing to this condition of affairs the owners of Adirondack or Catskill land no 

 longer allow their property to revert for taxes ; or, if any does go to sale it is bid 

 in by individuals, and thus the State fails to acquire it. Some holders intention- 

 ally allow the taxes on their lands to go unpaid ; but it is done for the express pur- 

 pose of bidding off these same lands at the Comptroller's tax sale, and thereby 

 strengthening their title. 



A careful examination of the land records in the Comptroller's office and in the 

 forestry department of your Commission shows that the area of the Forest Preserve 

 at this date is approximately as follows : 



ACRES. 

 1-290,987 



Adirondack Preserve, 

 Catskill Preserve, 



79,941 



1,370,928 



As stated before, this acreage is composed of 5,513 separate lots or parcels, each 

 having its own surveyed boundary lines, as shown on the large maps of the Adiron- 

 dack and Catskill counties issued by this Department. As these parcels were con- 

 veyed separately, either by tax certificate or grantor's deed — most of them by the 

 former — each one rests on its own individual title, and the ownership must be 

 protected accordingly. I mention this in order to give some idea of the clerical 

 work necessary in properly caring for the records pertaining to this vast amount 

 of real estate. 



Forestry. 



Owing to the restrictions of the forestry clause in the State constitution the 

 Department is debarred from undertaking any scientific work for the improvement 

 of the public woodlands or increase of the merchantable product thereon. Scien- 

 tific forestry, with its thinning and pruning, involves the use of the axe ; but the 

 constitutional clause referred to says that the "' timber thereon " shall not " be sold, 



