30 TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



v3tate Forests 



The annual report of Col. William F. Fox, Superintendent of State 

 Forests, which forms part of this report, is, as heretofore, a very compre- 

 hensive and interesting history of the forest lands owned by the State, their 

 management, origin of title, the acreage, work of reforesting and other 

 important facts and figures. 



The value and importance of the forest land owned by the State can- 

 not well be "overestimated. The necessity for the preservation of the forests 

 of the State is great ; the necessity for acquiring much more land than that 

 the State now has, is of equal importance; especially is the necessity for 

 both very important in the Forest Preserve territory in the Adirondacks. 



We are apt to lose sight of the fact that nearly all of the great rivers 

 of the State have their sources in and flow out of that great upland plateau. 

 One has only to reflect for a moment upon the number and size of these 

 rivers to comprehend the vast importance of the preservation of the forest 

 land in which they rise. Among them are the Hudson, Schroon, Oswe- 

 gatchie, Raquette, Grass, St. Regis, Saranac, Ausable, Rock, Cedar, Moose, 

 Beaver and Black Rivers, East and West Canada Creeks, each a river of 

 itself, although called a creek, the most important tributaries of the Mohawk. 



During the year 1906 there was cut and taken from the woodlands of 

 the Empire State over 1,300,000,000 feet of timber, board measure; a very 

 large proportion of that amount was taken from the Adirondack Mountains. 

 The softwoods are nearly all lumbered off; that is, that part which is fit to 

 cut. The value cf all kinds of lumber is daily increasing and soon it will 

 be so great that the lumbering of the hardwood in the Adirondacks will be 

 feasible; the price so much exceeding freight rates and the cost of manu- 

 facture that the profits will warrant the lumbering of the hardwood. If 

 the people of the State allow that to occur, and the hardwoods are taken 

 off, the protection of the sources of the rivers which rise in that section of 

 the State will be destroyed and it will be too late to repair the injury. 



It is the judgment of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, as well 

 as of many people well informed upon this subject, that some provision 

 should be immediately made for the purchase of at least a million acres 

 more of land in that region, and thereby preserve forever the forest lands 



