FORESTRY. 



EDITED BY DR. B. E. FERNOW, 

 Director of the New York School of Forestry, Cornell University, assisted by Dr. John C. Gifford of the same 



institution. 



It takes thirty years to &row a tree and thirty minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 



THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



The annual report for 1900 of the New 

 York State Forest Commission was issued 

 some time ago from the Government printer 

 at Albany. The report of the Commission 

 itself is brief, not quite 3 pages, 

 but is supplemented by reports of the su- 

 perintendent of forests, and a lengthy ex- 

 tract from the report of the assistant 

 superintendent. 



The matter of most interest in the Com- 

 mission's report is its reference to "exten- 

 sive experiments in tree planting, made by 

 the Commission, which have shown that 

 at a remarkably small expense these barren 

 places can in time be replaced by a health- 

 ful and valuable forest growth." 



Anyone consulting the reports of the 

 superintendent of forests and of his as- 

 sistant superintendent contained in the same 

 volume, will smile at the basis for the 

 statement of the Commission. For there 

 we read, that the "extensive experiments" 

 carried on by the Commission consisted in 

 the planting in the Catskills of 6,000 little 

 seedlings of pine and spruce, a gift of the 

 New York State College of Forestry, which, 

 with the greatest stretching, could not cover 

 more than 4 acres of ground, and which 

 were planted by the assistant superintend- 

 ent and his assistant with a few friends at a 

 "planting bee." 



No wonder that under such conditions, 

 the plant material a present, the labor gra- 

 tuitous, the expense was small. 



The College of Forestry has for 3 years 

 been engaged in this kind of planting, has 

 planted 150 acres of brush and waste land 

 besides 105 acres of cut-over land, and set 

 out altogether over 230,000 seedlings ; has 

 large nurseries established to furnish the 

 plant material and has sold to the Com- 

 mission 420,000 seedlings to continue its ex- 

 periments. The cost of planting seedlings 

 can hardly be kept below $6 to $10 an acre, 

 although by sowing the cost may be con- 

 siderably reduced. 



The condemnation of the wood alcohol or 

 acetic acid industry, which the Forest, Fish 

 and Game Commission indulges in, while 

 advocating the cutting of spruce for wood 

 pulp, is, to say the least, inconsistent. If 

 the industry is a nuisance, it will be proper 

 to condemn it ; but to suppress it because it 

 uses small hardwoods is peculiar. The 

 wood alcohol manufacturer is to the hard- 

 wood industry what the paper pulp 

 manufacturer is to the softwood industry. 

 Both use or can use small stuff, and it is the 



utilization of the small stuff resulting from 

 cleanings and thinnings and limbage in gen- 

 eral that makes forestry at all possible. 

 The dry distillation of wood, which is also 

 the modern method of charcoal manufac- 

 ture, is an industry that needs encourage- 

 ment and extension in proper direction. It 

 does no injury to the forest; in fact, it is 

 essential for the utilization of forest rub- 

 bish. It is right to restrict all industries 

 which are a nuisance and which actually 

 do damage; but to single out the acid fac- 

 tory, the necessary and highly utilitarian 

 concomitant of the hardwood industry, 

 is most erratic and unjust. To recommend 

 the preservation of our forests for indus- 

 trial purposes on one page and then to 

 summarily condemn the manufacture of 

 charcoal, wood alcohol, pyroligneous and 

 acetic acid, etc., on another is a most in- 

 consistent position. 



The Commission recommends in one 

 place that "scientific conservative forestry" 

 be applied to the Adirondack forest, and in 

 another recommends the "prevention of the 

 cutting of hardwoods for commercial pur- 

 poses." If this is forestry, it would be 

 as well to leave the constitutional amend- 

 ment preventing all cutting just as it is, 

 for an indefinite period of time. The prac- 

 tice of forestry under such circumstances 

 would be little better than poor lumbering, 

 and worse than the let-alone policy which 

 is now in force. It seems a pity, also, to 

 prevent the cutting of hardwoods for 

 "commercial purposes," and not for any 

 other purpose, if there is any. 



Perhaps the Commission has overlooked 

 the recommendations of the working plan of 

 Township No. 40, made for the Commission 

 by the Bureau of Forestry of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. This 

 working plan recommends the cutting of 

 softwoods down to certain diameter limits, 

 for purposes of revenue making, but with 

 silvicultural accompaniments. It also recom- 

 mends the "utilization of all mature and 

 defective hardwoods," whenever it can be 

 done profitably, and suggests the construc- 

 tion of a mill, a dam, a railroad and acid 

 and other factories, if need be, to aid in 

 the process of judicious utilization. In fact, 

 the report concedes that the better prac- 

 tice would be to remove the hardwoods 

 first and the softwoods afterward. 



Well meaning people often shed tears 

 needlessly over what appears to be denuda- 

 tion. It is often a good plan to cut the 

 forest and burn over the soil in places 



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