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and other pursuits incidental to handling the great vacation business of the mountains.

Statistics of the lumber production in the Adirondack region show that the maximum production was obtained about 1905 and has since been falling off, whereas the vacation business has tremendously increased. Assuming a fair basis for stumpage, this product was valued in 1903 at $3,275,000, and probably $5,600,000 were spent in wages in connection with the lumber industry. I regret that there are not available figures to make it possible to carry out any like comparison of all the industries in this region for the same period. I believe, however, that it is fair to assume that if such information were available, it would show conclusively that the lumbering industry amounts to probably not more than twenty per cent of the business of the Adirondacks.

Any rational plan of forest management contemplates that the forest land shall be used continuously for forestry purposes. The forest use may be either an indirect, aesthetic use, and other uses such as the state land affords under the constitution, or it may be a material use for the production of wood crops. It is my belief that, in sections like the Adirondacks, the recreational and aesthetic uses, which are indirect, and the uses for water supply, stream flow and flood prevention are the most important, and the uses for wood production are the less important factors in arriving at forest policy.

My idea is that any policy for lumber operations must be one that is not going to endanger adjacent forest property by fire upon private land, that shall not destroy the forest cover, and one that shall be so conducted that the reproduction of a new forest crop may be assured, so that continuous forest cover may be maintained. I do not think it possible to formulate a general statement regarding diameter limits in the cutting of either hard or soft wood trees in accordance with this idea, because as you gentlemen appreciate, forest conditions are too variable, from the purest spruce stand on the high mountain tops to that of the pure hardwoods on the lower altitudes. The problem must always be worked out and solved for the particular tract and conditions found upon it.

It is not my idea that the lumberman should sacrifice his

investment for the benefit of the sportsman or the hotel proprietor, but neither should he conduct his operations in such a way as to imperil or seriously interfere with their business. I believe that there is some common meeting ground upon which, by a careful consideration and weighing of all the interests, plans can and will be devised which will meet the situation.

Last winter I was so deeply impressed with the danger from forest fires, because of proposed additional lumbering operations, that I went before the Legislature, explained the situation and asked for the enactment of a law which would either regulate the cutting of timber on privately owned lands under system of proper forest management, or else for an appropriation to purchase the land for the state. The Legislature promptly passed a law to provide for a bond issue, and the proposition was submitted to the people to bond the state for the sum of seven and one-half million dollars to purchase additional land in the Adirondack and Catskill Parks. This amendment was carried by a majority of upwards of 150,000 votes at the last general election, and I am glad to say received the largest favorable vote in the up-state counties that any amendment for bonding purposes has ever had in those counties.

A state policy regarding the management of private forest lands should contemplate a financial return to the owner as far as possible, even though it may be indirect in some cases. The policy should provide that the lands be handled in accordance with the demands of the owner, wherever his private policy is not antagonistic to the larger public interest. This idea is neither new nor revolutionary. A large public interest in the management of privately owned land had for centuries been recognized in European countries. A decision of the Supreme Court of the State of Maine holds that the public has such an interest. And in our own state, Governor Hughes, in one of his annual messages, advocated legislation to provide that private management should not be antagonistic to the public welfare.

I am not satisfied that we should look to and consider the Adirondacks as our sole great source of future timber supply. I believe that other sections of the state, where there is better and more productive forest land, and where timber can be grown cheaper, should be planted or otherwise placed

under suitable forest crop production, and that these areas should be one of the important sources of our future wood supply. I believe that our upper mountain regions should be handled primarily as protective forests, from which, where they are privately owned, a certain quantity of timber can be removed by a selective system of cutting. Within this region there are other areas of comparatively level land, privately owned, which might, in some cases, be put under more intensive forest management, and from which wood crops might be successively obtained.

In regard to the management of the state land, very little can be said as to the policy. The constitution is very plain and most of us fully appreciate its meaning. My policy in regard to this matter which the constitution has so clearly covered, is:

1. To protect the integrity of the state's title.

2. To protect the state forests from fire and trespass. 3. By reforesting to rebuild a forest on the denuded areas of state land.

4. To make the state land more useful and available to the people for temporary use, for hunting, camping, fishing, recreation and health purposes.

I intend to do my utmost to pursue this policy of broader public use of the Forest Reserve, and am now making plans for a greater enjoyment by our millions of people of this great playground.

PRESIDENT OSTRANDER: Surely, I must commend the commissioner for a very plain and frank statement of this policy in regard to the management of state land. We may not agree with all the propositions which he sets forthCOMMISSIONER PRATT: I don't expect it.

PRESIDENT OSTRANDER: We thank you for coming here and giving this interesting paper. The next on our program is Professor Recknagel.

PROFESSOR RECKNAGEL: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Empire State Forest Products Association.

In the letter inviting me to address this meeting I was asked to present some accurate, scientific data on the probable interference with the forest and with the forest cover through hardwood logging, following the removal of the conifers. Such a subject does not permit of an extemporaneous

presentation, so I hope you will pardon me if I read a paper embodying data collected in the field which bear on the discussion.

There are, in the Adirondacks, four commonly recognized forest types: Swamp, spruce flat, spruce slope and hardwood land. Only the last named particularly concerns us to-day. This type may be described as follows: The hardwood land comprises the slopes, benches and hollows above the general level of the low-lying flats and streams. The soils are deep, fresh, sandy, and better drained than those of the other types. An abundant litter of hardwood leaves replaces the mosses and ferns, characteristic of the ground cover of the swamps and flats. The underbrush consists of such species as witch-hobble, striped maple, serviceberry, laurel and dog-wood. The burns occurring within this type are characterized by a rank growth of popple, bird-cherry, choke-cherry, and raspberry growing in among the dead and down timber. Conditions for reproduction on these burned areas are exceedingly poor, whereas the hardwood leaf litter on the unburned areas furnished an excellent seed-bed for all of the species except spruce. Spruce, although not the predominating species in this type, attains good size, particularly on the rich, fresh soils of the benches and in the hollows of moderate slopes. The percentage of spruce is greatest on the southeast slope where the soil is thin and rocky, for on such sites it has the advantage over the hardwoods. Hemlock occurs scatteringly throughout the type and occasional cherry and ironwood are found.

I shall divide the consideration of the results of hardwood logging, into three parts: (1) present condition of hardwood land, (2) probable amount removed if cut; effect on the forest cover and on reproduction of the softwoods, and (3) the sustained yield obtainable on hardwood land.

1. Present condition of Hardwood Land.

Your president, in an illuminating article on "Forest Utilization versus Forest Destruction," in Vol. 3, No. 1, of the "Journal of the New York State Forestry Association," shows the condition prevailing before any severe cutting of softwoods, based on the measurement of all trees 3 inches and over in diameter at breast height (abbreviated d. b. h.)

on 20,000 acres of private holdings in Essex County. This survey showed per average acre of all types:

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per average acre. The softwoods averaged 12 inches d. b. h. and occupied 40 per cent of the crown space; the hardwoods averaged 18 inches d. b. h. and occupied 60 per cent of the crown space.

Conservative cutting on this area, as described in the aforesaid article, took, per average acre, 47 of the softwoods, thus leaving:

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per average acre of all types after conservative cutting.

On the hardwood land alone in this same area, measurements made this fall by Mr. R. G. Bird, a graduate student in Cornell University, showed the following stand per average acre after cutting the softwoods to a 12 inch d. b. h. limit.

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