R^eport of tf)e ^aperintendent of Forests. 



To tl)e Forest, Tisl) and (iame Commission: 



I HAVE the honor to submit herewith my annual report on matters connected 

 with the Forest Preserve and the business incidental to the care, custody and 

 control of the lands owned by the State in the Adirondack and the Cats- 

 kill counties. 



Area of Forest Preserve. 



The area of the Forest Preserve is changing and enlarging continually. It would 

 be difficult to state the exact acreage until our new land list is compiled and pub- 

 lished, there being 5,513 separate parcels or titles as shown on the last one printed, 

 the schedule issued in 1897. 



There are continual accessions through the purchase of the Forest Preserve 

 Board ; and there were recently added 9,969 acres through the sale of bonded lands 

 by the State Engineer and Surveyor. Large areas were also acquired through suits 

 brought to re-establish the State's title to lands which had been lost through cancel- 

 lations improperly granted several years ago. Other suits for the same purpose are 

 still pending, through which further accessions to the Preserve wall be made. 



On the other hand, the State lost title to a few small parcels through redemptions 

 and cancellations granted in the Comptroller's office since the publication of the last 

 land list, such action having been based on good and sufficient reasons and in accord- 

 ance with the requirements of the general tax law. The decrease from this source, 

 however, was small. 



As no tax sales have been held by the Comptroller during the last five years there 

 has been no gain in acreage from that source ; nor is it expected that any consider- 

 able area will be acquired through the coming sale which will commence December 

 10, 1900. Over three-fourths of the lands now in the Preserve were acquired through 

 tax sales in former years, notably those of 1877 and 1881 ; but since then the acqui- 

 sitions through this medium have steadily decreased, there having been a marked 

 rise in the value of wild or forest lands due to the withdrawal from the market of 

 the large State holdings and the continual purchases by the Forest Preserve Board, 

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