76 ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



In order to carry on the work of reforesting to any satisfactory extent, 

 additional nurseries will have to be established and maintained. Owing 

 to the weed growth on the planting grounds we are forced to use four- 

 year-old transplants in order to insure success. In Europe, where the 

 planting grounds are carefully prepared and freed from all vegetable growth, 

 seedlings can be safely used, although many of the plantations in Germany 

 are set out with four-year-old stock, once transplanted in the nursery. But 

 the ground at our disposal in the Adirondacks is generally covered with 

 weeds, ferns, or some bushy growth that necessitates a tall, stocky plant. 

 If small seedlings are used, too many of them are smothered and die for 

 lack of sun and air. 



I would therefore recommend that a part of the next appropriation 

 for reforesting be expended in establishing an additional nursery and that 

 it be located in one of the Catskill valleys. A part of this nursery should 

 be used for the propagation of broad-leaf or hardwood trees of various 

 species. Throughout the state the newspapers have recently voiced a 

 demand that the commission shall maintain a nursery for raising shade 

 trees that can be utilized on the " good roads " system, and in adorning 

 the public grounds connected with state asylums or institutions of similar 

 character. If it is located in the Catskills a part of the stock could be 

 used for such purposes with good results. As the State maintains expen- 

 sive hatcheries for the free distribution of young fish, might it not also 

 maintain a nursery for the free distribution of young trees ? 



The plantation made in 1902, on township 21, Harrietstown, Franklin 

 county, is in a nourishing condition. It is situated on the south side of 

 the highway which runs from Lake Clear Junction to West Harrietstown, 

 and embraces about 700 acres in all, a part of which is a detached area 

 along the Saranac branch railroad near McAuley pond. The actual area 

 that was planted is less than the acreage mentioned, as the tract includes 

 some low, swampy places and, also, some ground on which the rocky out- 

 crop was so bare of soil that it would not support any tree growth. 



The young trees on this plantation are all alive, and are, on an aver- 

 age, about waist high. For the first two years they grew slowly, owing to> 

 the retarding effect of transplanting and the effort to establish a new root 

 system. But during the last summer they made a rapid growth, the 



