FORESTRY. 
the State would sell timber to the lumber-— 
men, spruce to the pulp mills, reap a large 
revenue for itself, still retain the woods 
open to the public, while protecting the 
sources of water, and increasing the yield 
under intelligent cultivation. It was along 
this line that he urged the placing of 
this section of our State in charge of 
Cornell university. President Roosevelt 
had his first training in forestry as gov- 
ernor of New York State. In 1903, in an 
address to foresters, he said: 
“The object is not to preserve the forests 
simply because they are beautiful, but the 
primary object is the making of a pros- 
perous home.” This economic conception of 
the whole question is the correct one. The 
useful and the beautiful need never be di- 
vorced. 
The College of Forestry for working out 
these economic conceptions, which really 
date back to Governor Horatio Seymour, 
was one of the wisest institutions ever cre- 
ated in our State. The Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1894 prohibited the cutting of 
wood on the forest preserves. This was 
to turn the whole Adirondack woods into 
an everlasting wilderness, obliterating the 
economic conception of the problem. With- 
out violating the Constitution, it was 
thought that Cornell university might be 
allowed to conduct forestry experiments on 
a purchase of land adjacent to the pre- 
serve for 30 years. It was provided that 
the university might “plant, cut, raise and 
sell timber, with a view to obtaining and 
imparting knowledge concerning the scien- 
tific management and use of forests, their 
regulation and administration, the harvest- 
ing and reproduction of wood crops and 
earning a revenue therefrom.” 
The College of Forestry’: was made a 
Lranch of Cornell university, and given a 
working capital of $30,000. It was sup- 
posed that the sale of wood might enlarge 
this capital, none of the profits accruing to 
the university. The working of this col- 
lege brought it immediately under the con- 
demnation of its neighbors. If the eco- 
nomic conception of the Adirondacks were 
allowed thus to work itself out, there must 
be an end of landlordism, sooner or later. 
The result was a violent attack, with a 
good deal of misapprehension and misrep- 
resentation, followed by a withdrawal of 
State patronage. The college is closed. 
The State of New York, through its Con- 
stitution, unwittingly made more than a 
million acres of the Adirondacks a perma- 
nent park for sportsmen. This was a bid 
for wealthy persons to secure as large 
areas as possible for their private uses, 
and they have done it. It was impossible 
to judge reasonably of the College of For- 
estry from an experiment lasting less than 
3 years. It was expressly organized by the 
237 
Legislature for a 30 years’ test. It needs 
but common knowledge of forestry to un- 
derstand that in less time an economic ex- 
periment of this kind could not be worked 
out. As matters now stand, the Adiron- 
dacks are given up to private exploitation. 
The forest question, as far as New York 
is concerned, has ceased to be one of eco- 
nomic import, and has become one of pleas- 
ure alone. Professor Fernow; who had 
charge of the college, certainly has the 
entire confidence of experts in this country 
and in Europe. He was Chief of the Di- 
vision of Forestry at Washington when 
called to be Director of our State College. 
Can we afford to allow matters to rest 
where they are? Shall we create in our 
country a spirit of outlawry to compete 
with an unwelcome development of land- 
lordism? 

BALSAM FOR PULP. 
The importance of finding a satisfactory 
substitute for spruce for the manufacture of 
paper pulp led to a commercial study of 
the balsam fir, which Mr. Raphael G. Zon, 
of the Bureau of Forestry, has just con- 
cluded. 
The rapid disappearance of spruce, the 
best tree in the North woods for the manu- 
facture of pulp, has forced pulp makers to 
use more and more balsam, and has brought 
that tree, once despised and neglected, into 
an important place. Four years ago prac- 
tically no balsam was used by pulp manu- 
facturers, many of whom are now using 
25 to 50 per cent of it. The quantity of 
balsam used depends entirely on the spruce 
supply near where the different mills are 
located. The smaller the quantity of spruce 
' available the greater is the quantity of bal- 
sam used. 
Pulp manufacturers find balsam the best 
substitute for spruce which can be found in 
the North woods. Other trees might serve 
well for paper pulp, but they are not native 
to the country where the mills are located. 
Pulp mills are enormously heavy and ex- 
pensive, and the wood must be brought to 
them; they can not be taken to the wood. 
The pulp inan, therefore, in his choice of a 
substitute for his diminishing supply of 
spruce, is confined to the few species that 
grow in association. with spruce, and of 
these species balsam is at once the most 
abundant and the most promising. 
The present method of making pulp out 
of balsam is to grind it or treat it with 
chemicals along with spruce. The results 
are not satisfactory. Balsam mixed with 
spruce produces an inferior grade of pulp. 
Mr. Zon suggests that it would be much 
better if balsam were handled independently 
of spruce. The balsam fibers are not nearly 
so tough and strong as those of spruce, and 
