FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 239 



the forests of our State would still be standing in an unbroken, umbrageous 

 growth. 



TI)e Primitive Forest. Its Composition. 



In 1614, the year when the first houses were built at Albany and on Manhattan 

 Island, the territory which afterwards constituted the State of New York was forest 

 covered throughout its entire extent. Some of the Indian tribes belonging to the 

 Six Nations had cleared small areas near their villages on which they raised corn ; 

 and in some places on the east side of the Hudson River there, were openings 

 caused by forest fires which the red men had started in order to facilitate hunting. 

 But these clearings formed an insignificant proportion of the entire region. It was 

 a silent, unbroken wilderness where stood a primeval forest which, in grandeur and 

 undeveloped wealth, was unsurpassed in all the region of the Atlantic coast. 



New York was not only a forest State, but it was essentially a white pine State. 

 This valuable species was predominant throughout the entire territory. It was 

 conspicuous everywhere by its towering height, although it may not have been as 

 numerous as some of the inferior or smaller species with which it was associated. 

 In height, diameter and quality of timber the pines of New York compared favor- 

 ably with those of any other region on the continent. Generally they attained a 

 height ranging from 130 to 160 feet, with a diameter, breast high, that varied 

 from two to four feet. In some localities there were individuals of still greater 

 size. So far as can be determined now, the maximum height was reached at about 

 255 feet, and the maximum diameter at about 80 inches. There is a record of 

 a white pine which was cut in the town of Meredith that measured 247 feet in 

 length as it lay on the ground. There are many New York lumbermen living 

 to-day whose reminiscences include stories of giant pines that measured 7 feet or 

 more across the stump and over 220 feet in height. 



There is ample evidence as to the uniform distribution of this species through- 

 out the State. The History of Delaware County states that " the town of Walton 

 when first settled was heavily timbered with pine, and some hemlock, which at 

 an early day was rafted to Philadelphia in lumber or logs, constituting the 

 all-absorbing industry from which the land debts and living expenses were paid ; " 

 and that " the mountain east of the village of Walton received its name from the 

 immense pines that covered its sides, and the entire valley of the village was a 

 dense forest of the same." The History of Cattaraugus County tells of the 

 " remarkable size and gooci quality " of the white pine in the southwestern part of 

 New York. Holden's History of Warren County mentions " the splendid pines 



