gS TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



In asking for appropriations to carry on our nursery work and tree 

 planting we are often confronted with the question, why not let these lands 

 grow up to trees and reforest themselves naturally? In reply we point out 

 that the waste lands in the Adirondacks do not always reforest themselves 

 naturally. The Indian Plains on the south branch of the Moose River are 

 entirely devoid of woody growth, and were so described in the field notes 

 of John Richards when, he surveyed that township ninety years ago. The 

 Mineral Plains, a treeless expanse of several hundred acres near Cranberry 

 Lake, were in that same condition in 1772 according to the field notes of 

 Archibald Campbell, one of the colonial surveyors who located the great 

 Totten & Crossfield Purchase. Near the Red Horse Chain, on the trail to 

 Witchhopple Lake, is a large opening in the forest where the ground is 

 covered only with ferns and has always been so as far back as the oldest 

 guide and hunter in that locality can remember. Surveyor O'Hara, in 1791, 

 described an Indian cornfield of 100 acres or more, in Arthurboro Patent, 

 Hamilton county, and this field is still bare of trees, or even shrubs. The 

 burned lands and sandy plains in West Harrietstown, near Lake Clear 

 Junction, remained for many years in a denuded condition until they were 

 reforested by the State. 



Let it be conceded, however, for the sake of the argument, that the 

 waste and barren lands in the Preserve will in time reforest themselves 

 naturally. But in such a case the tree growth will be composed largely of 

 worthless material and unmerchantable species. The wild forest that will 

 take possesion of the land is not worth one-tenth the cultivated one that 

 could be established there. The primeval forests of the Adirondacks, at 

 their best, have only yielded about 4,500 feet of soft wood timber on an 

 average, the remainder being unmerchantable. But our planted forests 

 when fully grown will yield, at least, 40,000 feet of pine per acre. A wild 

 forest, with its haphazard, undesirable growth, will increase but little, if 

 any, in value, for there is none in it to start with; but a planted forest, 

 every tree a pine or spruce, will increase in value with every rise in the price 

 of lumber. Our people want wood, need wood, and must have it. It is 

 the mission of the forester to grow wood and thus make provision for this 

 ever increasing demand. 



