Page images
PDF
EPUB

There is in progress, to be taken up at odd times, an extension of the 1859 catalogue, by which it is intended to add to it, in their order, the titles of the records which have been accumulated in the several offices, including our own, since the issue of the catalogue of 1859.

RETROSPECTIVE.

During the time that the Commission has been in existence it has expended the sum of $30,036.72. This includes the payment for much material necessary for organization that will be permanent and will involve no expense hereafter. As the Commission has paid into the State treasury $14,057.09, there is only a balance of $15,979.63 left to represent the pecuniary cost of the Commission to the State, surely a trifling sum when weighed against the work that has already been done and the foundations that have been laid for future accomplishment.*

The Commissioners, of course, could not have remained in ignorance of the fact that in the performance of the official duties with which they were charged they have incurred the suppressed ill-will in some cases, and in others the open hostility of those with whom they have been compelled to deal. This was to be anticipated, and it was probably unavoidable. They are conscious that they have intentionally given offense or caused injury to no man, and that in all instances they have pursued their work with none but the kindliest feelings, exercising at the same time as much leniency and forbearance as was compatible with the ends of justice. While, on the one hand, they have shown no favoritism, so, on the other, have they shown no hostility and have felt none. If the laws which have controlled their action have at times caused a sting, it could not be fairly laid at the door of the Commissioners; they might regret, while they could not avoid it. Such instances doubt less exist, but it is hoped that they are few in number. On the other hand, they cannot but feel gratified at the high commendation which has been passed generally upon the course that they have pursued, and at the great interest that is everywhere felt in the work in which they are engaged.

In the prosecution of their new enterprise the Commissioners have received, throughout the past year, a most cordial assistance

* Since the above statement was made out the Commission has obtained judg ment in another trespass case for $1,250.

from other departments of the State government, which they wish to publicly recognize. In some branches of the work that has been devolved upon this bureau there have been many details that were so closely connected with the Comptroller's office that, except for the courtesy shown and aid rendered by the officials in that department, all transactions connected therewith would have been extremely difficult. Supervisors throughout the State have cheerfully co-operated with the Commission in discharging such obligations as fell to them under the forest act, and have responded readily to the various calls upon them for information with reference to their respective localities. There has been a generous backing given to the Commission by the people, which has greatly strengthened their hands and encouraged them in their undertaking. If the tone of the public press and the assurances contained in personal letters are any indication, the people are in cordial and universal sympathy with the object of the Commission. There is a public demand for the work that it is doing that cannot and will not be ignored. Whether or not it falls to the lot of the Forest Commission, as now constituted, to do this work, is a question of minor importance, but it cannot be doubted that the work must be done.

A GLANCE BACKWARD.

COLONIAL AND STATE LEGISLATION.

Even in colonial times there seems to have been felt the necessity of adopting some plan to save the forests. The Colony of Connecticut, as early as 1640, enacted a law" in order that the timber should not be wasted, none should be cut or exported except by special license from the court, and no trees should be permitted to be felled except after the fall of the leaf." That was probably the earliest forest legislation in this country. In 1650 the Director and Council of the New Netherlands, acting for the West India Company, granted to "freemen the liberty to cut and draw from the public forests as much firewood and timber as they should require," but in 1669 the Earl of Bellomont wrote to the Lords of Trade that "the cutting of big pines fit for masts and the king's ships had been prohibited by proclamation." Means had been already taken to preserve the forests from fires.

At a meeting of the Court of Assizes, October 7, 1671, this item stands recorded: "Mr. Hallett's Peticon to have an order made

[ocr errors]

conformable to a former ord" of Assizes, Anno 1669, the which was about Barking of Trees to p'vent ye destroying of his Timber by Tanners and Strangers. It was granted."

The council passed an order, April 8, 1676, "That for the future no Tree bee cutt for planks or other use for sale, butt from the Latter end of November to the beginning of March, and the tree not to bee lesse than twenty inches through."

In 1700 Bellomont again writes, urging that an act be passed, 66 obliging everybody who cuts down a tree to plant four or five young trees in its stead, which, I am told, is the custom in Norway, otherwise the woods in Norway would have been exhausted long ago."

During the next decade the waste of woods began to be seriously felt, and in 1710 an act was suggested imposing a fine of £100 for every tree cut or destroyed, except by the government's permission. In 1723 Gov. Cadwallader Colden recommended "that white pines be planted, one for each tree cut down or dying."

The Earl of Hillsborough, in 1768, wrote to Gov. Moore, of New York, advising a survey of the pine districts and the adoption of measures to prevent any more waste or destruction therein. There was much correspondence during this period relating to the preservation of forests as necessary for furnishing inasts and planks for ships, trees being evidently regarded as having been especially created for maintaining the King's navy.

Iu pressing his plans for the preservation of trees, the Earl of Bellomont pathetically says: The people of New York pay little heed to laws and proclamations and show no disposition to obey them," which may account for the fact that, notwithstanding all efforts, the pine trees disappeared from New York and is scarcely known to the children of to-day, except by the pictures in their school-books.

STEPS LEADING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOREST

COMMISSION.

In 1791 the New York Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufacturies recommended to the State that a system of tree planting be adopted, and appointed a committee "to consider the best inodes of preserving and increasing the growth of wood and valuable timber." That committee reported in favor

of devoting lands least adapted to agricultural purposes to the cultivation of trees. Other recommendations and suggestions were also made by the committee, which were marked by a foresight and an understanding of the subject much in advance of that time, and which proposed the employment of many methods which are based on the knowledge and experience possessed to-day. The recommendations of that committee were not adopted. If they had been the State would have, without doubt, added largely to its wealth, and would have precluded the efforts required now to retrieve what it lost by its omissions then. So far as known, this was the first attempt made by this State in the direction of timber preservation and forest culture.

For nearly eighty years the propositions of the committee of the Agricultural Society slept an undisturbed sleep. It was not till 1869 that the Legislature of the State turned its attention to the subject of tree planting, when it passed a law to encourage planting trees by the sides of the public highways, and, in 1872, created by enactment "a Commission of State Parks," whose duty was "to inquire into the expediency of providing for vesting in the State the title to the timbered regions lying within the counties of Lewis, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Herkimer and Hamilton, and converting the same into a public park." The Commissioners named in the act were Horatio Seymour, Patrick II. Agan, William B. Taylor, George H. Raynor, William A. Wheeler, Verplanck Colvin and Franklin B. Hough.

That Commission, known as the "Park Commission," made a report recommending that no more lands lying in the counties named should be sold, but that as lands were acquired by the State through tax sales they should be held for future forest management. The use of the word "park" in this connection was unfortunate, and it doubtless delayed the adoption of the methods recommended by the Commission. At all events, its recommendations were not acted upon until 1883, when a law was passed pro hibiting further sales of land in the counties named in the act, and also in the counties of Saratoga and Warren. During the interval the sale of State lands had been continued, and in 1883 the State had a much less acreage in its possession than it would have had if it had adopted the recommendations contained in the committee's report as soon as they were made.

At the session of the Legislature in 1884 there was appropriated $5,000, to be used by the Comptroller of the State in "the employment of such experts as he may deem necessary to investigate and report a system of forest preservation." In July of that year the Comptroller (Hon. Alfred C. Chapin) appointed as such experts Prof. Charles S. Sargeant, of Cambridge, Mass.; D. Willis James, Esq., of New York city; Hon. William A. Poucher, of Oswego, and Edward M. Shepard, Esq., of Brooklyn. The committee, so constituted, reported the result of their investigations, coupled with their recommendations as to future policy, to the Comptroller, in January, 1885, and in forwarding their report to the Legislature, Comptroller Chapin said: "The problem in its fullness affects the welfare of many sister commonwealths and of the nation at large. It is eminently fitting that in its solution the Empire State should lead the way."

As a sequel to, and the result of the recommendations of the Comptroller's committee, the bill establishing the Forest Commission was passed in the following May. Thus, nearly a century after the first suggestion that the State should inaugurate a policy of forest preservation and tree culture, a Commission was created to carry that policy into effect. In this matter, at least, the State cannot be accused of "hasty legislation."

HOW THE COMMISSION IS CONSTITUTED AND THE OBJECTS IN VIEW.

The New York Forest Commission is really the outgrowth of an intelligent public sentiment, which is not simply local, but national, and which has inspired the establishment of commissions of the same character by many States of the Union as well as by the general government.

In form the present Commission is constituted in accordance with the recommendations of the Comptroller's investigating committee, and the features of the Forest Act, also, under which the present Commission is governed, are substantially those recommended by that committee.

[ocr errors]

Whether the contemplated Forest Commission should be a single-headed Commission," with a salary, or should consist of several, to serve without pay, was a question thoroughly weighed by the investigating committee in all its aspects, with the result that three of the four commissioners objected to the single-headed

« PreviousContinue »