FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 277 



On the Raquette River: Edward King, Ralph Pomeroy, Charles Pearson, George 

 Richards, Matthias Vickery, James H. Carpenter, Edward W. Hutchings, Lyman 

 H. Wilcox, Harrison Plummer, A. M. Adsit, and E. H. Rosekrans. 



On the Tioga River: Deacon Simeon Hammond, Abijah Weston, William C. 

 Bronson, William B. Stevens, and Julius Tremaine. 



On the Saranac River: Senator Christopher F. Norton, Almon Thomas, James 

 Hammond, David H. Parsons, Wales Parsons, Hartwell Brothers, C. A. Tefft, and 

 Lorin Ellis.* 



In Western New York: John D. Mersereau, of Portville, and the Weston 

 Brothers, of Olean. 



Woodpcttp. 



Within twenty years the logging industry in Northern New York has been 

 materially affected by the demand for material necessary in the manufacture of 

 woodpulp, an industry of comparatively recent development. Ground pulp, 

 obtained by holding blocks of wood against a grindstone, was first made in this 

 country in 1867, at Stockbridge, Mass. Chemical mills, in which the fibre is 

 reduced by the action of acids under steam pressure, were introduced about the 

 same time. Now, there are 293 mills, mechanical and chemical, in the United 

 States, of which 102 are located in New York. Wisconsin comes next with 37 ; and 

 Maine, with 30. 



At first the New York mills used poplar only. This was deemed a desirable 

 condition by our foresters, because this species does not appear to be available for 

 any other purpose, while, at the same time, it is the one kind of tree with which 

 Nature quickly reforests the burned areas in the Adirondacks. But poplar was soon 

 discarded in favor of spruce, to which have been added within the last five years 

 some of the other conifers, the process of manufacture having been so improved 

 that a satisfactory fibre is now obtained from hemlock, pine, and balsam. 



The effect on the timber cutting was soon evident. While the lumbermen 

 forfnerly took nothing less than two-log trees, leaving nearl}/ all that were twelve 

 inches or less in diameter on the stump, the woodpulp men cut all the trees of 

 certain species, large and small. This close cutting of the spruce and other kinds 

 left no provision for future growth, and thinned the forest so severely in places 



* For interesting and valuable facts relating to' the history of lumbering operations in the Saranac 

 Valley, see paper read by Hon. Everitt C. Baker before the Plattsburgh Institute, Jan. 14, IQOI, and 



printed in the Plattsburgh Sentinel, Jan. r8, 1901. 



