282 REPORT OF THE 



average, to an ad valorem duty of about thirteen per cent."^" Under this impost 

 the Canadian lumber imports have fallen off one-half within the last two years. 



Such, in brief, is the history of lumbering operations and the lumber industry in 

 the State of New York as brought down to the present time. It may be interesting 

 to note here that, with the closing years of the century, improved methods of lum- 

 bering and a conservative system of forestry have been introduced in the woodlands 

 of our State, which mark a distinct epoch in the history of this industry and promise 

 to make the management of our forests a still more important and beneficent factor 

 in the political economy of the State. Already some of the largest timber tracts 

 belonging to private ownership in Northern New York are being lumbered under 

 a system that not only insures immediate profit, but makes ample provision for 

 forest preservation and a perpetual timber supply. The cutting is restricted not 

 only to certain species, but to a fixed diameter that leaves a good proportion 

 of the same species as the basis of another crop. Further provision for the future 

 growth of merchantable timber is made by leaving at suitable interv^als healthy 

 specimens to serve as seed trees that will propagate a wind sown crop of seedlings 

 in every opening. Economical methods of felling trees have been introduced which 

 protect the young growth and, in addition, yield more timber per tree. New 

 industries have arisen that are dependent on forest products, and utilize much of 

 the material which heretofore has gone to waste. 



The work is placed in charge of skilled foresters who mark each tree that is 

 to be cut, and allow nothing cut that is not marked. The protective functions 

 of the forest are carefully guarded, and no trees whatever are allowed to be cut 

 on steep side hills or wherever a cutting might result in windfalls, soil erosion, 

 or denudation. 



The great primeval forests owned by the State have been carefully examined by 

 competent foresters, who have made intelligent working plans under which the 

 matured timber may be removed from time to time and a permanent, annual 

 revenue secured to the State whenever the present constitutional restrictions are 

 removed. And so, profiting by the lessons of the past, and encouraged by the 

 successes of the present, the great lumber industry of the State enters upon another 

 century of its existence with every promise that it will continue to add its full share 

 to the honor and prosperity of the Commonwealth. 



*The present tariff, enacted in 1897, puts a duty of $2.00 per M, feet on sawed pine, spruce, hem- 

 lock, balsam, maple, birch, beech, elm, ash, and walnut; and a duty of $1.00 per M. feet on whitewood, 

 sycamore and basswood. Cedar, when sawed, is admitted at 15 per cent ad valorem. On planed 

 lumber an additional charge is made of 50 cents per M. feet for each side dressed; and 50 cents more 

 per M. for tongued and grooved boards of flooring. 



