264 REPORT OF THE 



and was equipped with platform cars and a locomotive which bore on its cab 

 the name " Bull of the Woods." This railroad was not used as a substitute for log 

 driving, but for hauling logs to the bank of the Tioga River, where they were 

 rolled into the stream and driven to the large gang mills at Painted Post. 



Railroads were utilized more and more, improvements were made in the mechan- 

 ical appliances for loading logs on cars, and in time it became evident that railroad- 

 ing was more economical in the end than river driving. Our Adirondack lumbermen 

 have been quick to perceive the many advantages of this new system of bringing 

 stock to their mills, and now there are several timber tracts in Northern New York 

 from which all the logs are taken out by rail. A central line is built through the 

 forest, with branch tracks and switches in place of log roads. The tourist on our 

 Adirondack trunk lines may see any day long trains of fiat cars loaded high with 

 logs bound for some sawmill or pulpmill. 



The use of railroads in the transportation of logs enables the lumbermen to get 

 out their hardwood timber, which otherwise would be inaccessible and worthless 

 because it cannot be floated down the streams. The logs are too heavy; they 

 would sink. The hardwoods — birch, maple, beech, ash and cherry — constitute on 

 an average over sixty-five per cent of our northern forests. In the Catskills these 

 species form a still larger proportion. As this class of timber becomes accessible 

 under improved methods of logging, the value of such timber lands is greatly 

 enhanced. 



The increasing use of railroads by our lumbermen and consequent rise in the 

 price of hardwood lands will have a direct influence on the forest policy of the 

 State. Hitherto the State has been purchasing forest lands at a low price, because 

 the lumbermen, having removed the small proportion of conifers — spruce, pine and 

 hemlock — were willing to sell at a low figure. The remaining hardwoods could not 

 be marketed, and the taxes were burdensome. But now that the hardwoods, as 

 well as the others, will probably be cut, there arises an imperative necessity for 

 more prompt and liberal action on the part of the State Legislature if our forests 

 are to be preserv-ed. Hitherto lumbering has meant a culling or thinning process, 

 the removal of the evergreens only ; it soon may mean denudation. 



lyen^tl) of lyOg^S. 



The lumbermen of Southern and Western New York cut their logs mostly 

 into lengths of sixteen feet to supply the market demand for sixteen-foot boards. 

 They cut some twelve-foot logs in order to save timber, and there was generally 



