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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



raw material at low cost. This fact, in conjunction with its 

 abundant and cheap waterpower, must inevitably make it one of 

 the ultimate chief manufacturing districts of New York. 



The real value of the Aclirondaek region. In regard to the 

 Adirondack region as a whole we may consider that the climate 

 is mostly too severe for the ordinary agriculture of the lowlands 

 of the State of New York. During several years, in which the 

 writer was more or less in the northern forests, frosts occurred 

 there each season, at an elevation of about 1800 feet, in both of 

 the months of June and August, July being the only month 

 entirely free from frost. Under these circumstances it is impos- 

 sible to raise corn, wheat or barley. Oats, potatoes and meadow 

 grass are the ordinary agricultural crops raised, and even these 

 only with difficulty because of the vast areas of boulders with 

 which the region is largely covered. As an economic proposition, 

 therefore, the Adirondack region is' useful for but three purposes ; 



1) for cultivating timber, which can be easily done under rational 

 forestry administration without prejudice to the other interests; 



2) for water storage, which, because of the numerous natural 

 reservoir sites, may be more cheaply carried out here than in any 

 other locality in the eastern states; and 3) for a great State 

 park, which ultimately, by the construction of good wagon roads, 

 may be made an easily accessible pleasure resort for the people 

 of the State of New York. 



Rather singularly the great mass of the people who go into the 

 woods for pleasure regard forestry and water storage as inimical 

 to their interests. They assume, indeed, that the Great Northern 

 Forest should be preserved as a pleasure resort alone; and many 

 with whom the writer has conversed are apparently unable to 

 see that the State owes any duty to its manufacturing interests. 

 This position of the woods-going pleasure seekers, fishermen, 

 hunters, etc. while extremely unsatisfactory, has still a certain 

 rational basis underlying it all. It is due very largely to the 

 indifference of the lumbermen in former years, when many acts 

 of vandalism were laid at their door, though to some extent 

 unjustly. At the present time a number of the leading lumber- 

 men of the State are members of the American Forestry Asso- 



