FORESTRY. 



EDITED BY DR. B. E. FERNOW, 



f Forestry, Cornell University, assisted 

 institution. 



It takes thirty years to grow a tree arid thirty minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 



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



institution. 



nv 



FOREST USES DEFINED. 



New York State has been charged by a 

 set of New York City bankers with having 

 violated her Constitution by establishing 

 the Demonstration Forest, which the Col- 

 lege of Forestry was to manage, and the 

 methods, of the College have been criticised, 

 apparently for the sole reason that they were 

 unknown to these gentlemen and to certain 

 newspaper writers, who therefore assume 

 that the methods must be wrong. Con- 

 cerning this matter the Director of the 

 College of Forestry, himself a professional 

 forester, says, in his latest report for the 

 year 1901 : 



Forestry is a technical art, wholly utili- 

 tarian, and not, except incidentally, con- 

 cerned in esthetic aspects of the woods. 

 It is engaged in utilizing the soil for the 

 production of wood crops, and thereby of 

 the highest revenue attainable. To make 

 the soil produce the largest quantity of the 

 most useful wood per acre is the foremost 

 aim of forestry. It is in this respect the 

 twin sister of agriculture, wood material 

 being the object of the forester, food ma- 

 terials of the farmer. 



There may be in addition secondary ob- 

 jects to be attained by a forest growth, and 

 sometimes these secondary objects may be 

 even of main importance; as, for instance, 

 where on steep, Alpine mountain slopes a 

 forest cover is to be maintained in order to 

 prevent erosion and rapid surface drainage 

 of waters — so-called protection forests ; or 

 where the owner has decided to set aside 

 his forest property as a game preserve or 

 recreation ground, such as the State Forest 

 Preserve is at present — a luxury forest. 



Not that these secondary objects need 

 to exclude the primary object of forest 

 growth, namely, the production of useful 

 material ; but in these 2 cases the methods 

 of management will differ perhaps some- 

 what from those employed in the business 

 forest. Nor does the manager of a forest 

 managed for business purposes, namely, 

 wood production and revenue, necessarily 

 neglect any of the other benefits a forest 

 may bring as far as his main object per- 

 mits or makes desirable. The German for- 

 ests are managed with due regard to all 3 

 purposes, the business side taking, to be 

 sure, precedence. 



In an article on "Adirondack Forestry 

 Problems," printed in the report of the 



New York State Forest, Fish arid "Game 

 Commission for 1898, I pointed out iri more 

 or less detail what differences in manage 1 

 ment there would be, according to whether 

 the protective, the luxury or the business 

 object is to be made the prominent 6n6. 



That the College Forest was set aside and 

 was to be managed primarily as a business :" 

 forest will appear from the reading of the 

 law which instituted it, to show "the scien- 

 tific management and use of forests; their 

 regulation and administration, the produc- 

 tion, harvesting and reproduction of wood 1 

 crops and earning a revenue therefrom." 

 This last injunction leaves no doubt as to 

 the intention of the legislator ; hence the 

 entire management of the College has been 

 based on the business aspect of the proposi- 

 tion. 



To earn a revenue necessitates the sale of 

 something; hence the law provides that 

 the University, having "title, possession 

 and control of the land, shall plant, raise, 

 cut and sell timber at such times and of 

 such species and quantities and in such 

 manner as it may deem best;" 



.This language fully and explicitly de- , 



scribes the business of the forester, and is 

 being explicitly followed by the College as 

 manager of this property. The forestel", 

 then, is a harvester, as well as a sower of 

 planter. The crude idea entertained by the 

 ignorant, that he is to cut out dead trees 

 and trim branches, which he can not 1 sell, 

 and clear out undesirable undergrowth, 



\ which would not only be- expensive but 

 often bad forestry; can be put into practice 

 only in "luxury forests," in which the owri- 

 er is willing to spend his substance for the 

 sake of gratifying his pleasure. * 



To earn a revenue, the old crop, nature's^ 

 crop, must be harvested and sold in such a 

 manner and at such prices as to leave" a 

 margin. The difficulties which surround 

 this requirement have -been discussed at 

 length in previous reports. It Was " there 

 pointed out that the forester, who can not, 

 like the lumberman, merely harvest the 

 most profitable and salable portions of 

 nature's crop, culling out the desirable, 

 leaving the undesirable, but must secure the- 

 reproduction of this or rather of a better 

 crop, is at a disadvantage in having to pro- 

 vide for means of disposing of the inferior 

 material, the offal and debris, which would 

 encumber the ground after a logging opera- 



. tion antf would interfere with the growth 

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