FACULTY OF THE NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY. JAMES ROSCOE DAY, S. T. D., D. C. L., LL.D., HUGH POTTER BAKER, M. F. (Yale 1904); D. Oec. (Munich 1910), DEAN, Professor of Silviculture. FRANK F. MOON, B. A. (Amherst College 1901); M. F. (Yale 1909), Professor of Forest Engineering. PHILIP TRIPP COOLIDGE, A. B. (Harvard 1905); M. F. (Yale 1907), Director of Ranger School; Professor of Forestry. EDWARD F. McCARTHY, B. S. (University of Michigan 1911); JOHN WALLACE STEPHEN, B. A. (University of Michigan); NELSON CORTLANDT BROWN, B. A. (Yale 1906); M. F. (Yale 1908), Assistant Professor of Forest Utilization. REUBEN PARKER PRICHARD, B. S. (Dartmouth 1907) M. F. Yale (1909), Instructor in Forestry at Ranger School. RUSSELL TAYLOR GHEEN, B. S. F. (Penn State 1912), EDITH E. HAITH, B. L. E. (Syracuse 1912), Librarian. LILLIAN M. LANG, [3] 299064 Virgin Forest in Township 40 in the Adirondacks. Much of the larger Spruce, Fir and Beech and Birch are over-ripe and should be removed to insure the proper development of the future forest. VINNOJITVO THE REFORESTATION OF CUT OVER AND IDLE LANDS IN NEW YORK. A LARGE PART OF NEW YORK BETTER SUITED TO FORESTRY THAN TO AGRICULTURE, Out of the 34,000,000 of acres in the State of New York over 35 per cent or 12,000,000 of acres are better suited for the growing of timber than for any other purpose. This is the verdict of the Census Bureau for the Great State of New York. It is difficult indeed to appreciate what this large area of land means, but if it were one unbroken forest, it would cover the States of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and extend for forty miles across the southern part of Vermont and New Hampshire. Or it would cover in our own State practically all of the section north of the New York Central Railroad. Statistics show also that out of the 22,000,000 of acres enclosed within the farms of the State, but 15,000,000 are actually in agricultural crops. This means that there are 7,000,000 of idle acres in the farms of New York which should be made productive. It is probable that not all of this large area is actually nonagricultural, but without question there is an area larger than the State of Massachusetts enclosed within our farms and permanently non-productive. Of the 12,000,000 of acres outside of the farms and referred to above, it has been shown that less than half contains merchantable timber, about four million and a half of the twelve millions of acres are covered with more or less valuable growth but non-merchantable; there are then nearly two millions of acres with no valuable growth at all, really in the form of waste lands. NEW YORK HAS NO REAL WASTE LAND. It is a misnomer in a way to call these essential forest lands waste lands. To-day New York is land poor in a sense and yet these very lands will in time become a source of large profit to the State. Forest land in Europe not nearly as well adapted to the production of forests as much of the forest areas of New York is producing as high as $3 to $5 per acre per year. It may be many years before our waste lands will be producing so high an annual return as this but with reasonable care these lands will soon begin to be productive and in time will bear a large share of the burden of the support of this great Commonwealth. [5] LITTLE OR NO VALUABLE TREE GROWTH ON DENUDED LANDS. What is the condition of these denuded lands at the present time? Over much of the area we will find a scattering growth of brush and inferior tree species occupying the ground or we may find old, abandoned pastures gradually giving up to the extension of the forests about them. Usually they produced a valuable timber crop in the past and are capable of such production again. If left to herself Nature might succeed in time in re-establishing a good forest. However, the often repeated statement that if we will simply protect our cutover lands, as they now exist, from fire, that they will soon come up to valuable forests again, is seldom true. Where a reasonable number of the right kind of mother trees have been left on the ground, Nature may in time reforest the surface with a fair growth of timber. There are very extensive areas in New York where all of the valuable trees have been cut or destroyed by fire and it will take many years indeed to bring back anything in the way of a satisfactory forest. Over such areas it will be necessary to do a certain amount of planting before the right kind of forest can be established. As the forest lands of New York lie largely in the zone of the maximum development of the conifers, which are usually evergreens, the future forests of the State will without doubt be made up largely of rapid growing conifers such as some of the pines and spruces. SECOND GROWTH HARDWOOD OFTEN WORTHLESS. Over lands which formerly produced a hardwood forest, Nature often re-establishes a second forest in a comparatively short time. These second growth hardwood or sprout forests are formed readily from the stumps of trees and in a measure are independent of seed trees for reproduction. It is very different with the conifers or evergreens which with one or two exceptions are incapable of reproducing by means of sprouts. As certain of our conifers are the most rapid growing trees which we can put onto the land and have a timber that is very desirable for use in the industries, it is probable that much of our future forests will be evergreen or coniferous. There is too much land in the State to-day covered with poor, worthless, second growth hardwoods. These should be removed entirely and replaced by seedlings of the evergreens. Much quicker returns will be gotten by this clear cutting and planting than can be expected from the present growth on the ground, even though some attempt is made to improve it. After the coniferous forest is once well established it may |