assume that if the State acquires any more woodlands in northern New York, such area must, without any exception, be placed in the Preserve, no matter how great the need for other purposes, would seem like a narrow and technical interpretation of the law. It would forbid the Legislature buying any land whatever in the Adirondacks except for one specific purpose. This provision could be evaded by the passage of an act authorizing the purchase of some tract in which the owners would be allowed to reserve a timber right. But such evasion, as well as any narrow-minded interpretation of the constitutional provision, would not become the dignity of the State or the meritorious character of the proposed enterprise. It would be better if the Legislature were to enact some law carrying a special appropriation for the purchase of the land, and providing for its especial use as a forestry experiment station.

The land thus acquired and dedicated could, while under the general supervision of the Forestry Department, be placed under the management of skilled, professional foresters. The experiment to be made would consist in the demand that these men, having a primitive forest given them free of interest account, should so manage the property that the State would derive an annual income from it over and above the cost of management and any sums that might be advanced to inaugurate the work If they fail to do this, any further advice about scientific work and improved methods as applied to our woodlands would seem gratuitous.

The experiment would not imply that the State must go into the lumber business, or undertake any logging operations, or advance money for teams, wages and materials. The matured trees designated by the foresters could be sold to the highest bidder, leaving the removal of the timber to the purchaser, whose work of tree felling, trimming, log cutting and road building must be done under the direction of the forester and according to written contract. A part of the surplus revenuc left after paying the foresters and other expenses could be devoted to forest improvement, a class of work in which the technical knowledge of the professional forester would be available and valuable. But these are matters of detail which need not be discussed now.

The State can make no mistake in such a purchase. The property becomes an asset convertible into cash at any time, which cannot be said of other public expenditures. And as long as the State sees fit to hold the property, the yearly forest revenue would make it an interest-bearing investment. Whenever it ceases to be such, sell the property and abandon the experiment; the State will be none the poorer for the trial.

In view of the facts set forth and the suggestions respectfully submitted here for your honorable consideration, might it not be well for the Commission to prepare a

bill to be introduced in the Legislature during its next session which will contain the provisions necessary for carrying out this plan?

The working methods in use throughout our forests cannot be supplanted in a day by those of other countries; the difference in conditions will not permit it. Any attempt to thus revolutionize business would result in financial failure. But through intelligent and conservative experiments, based on existing conditions, an ideal system may be evolved, which our people will be proud to recognize and claim as American forestry.

T

Occupants of State Lands.

HE occupation of land in the Forest Preserve presents one of the most perplexing and complicated questions with which this Commission has to deal. The buildings which, in one place and another, constitute these occupancies range all the way from the most primitive shanty to costly and beautiful summer homes. With few exceptions, they were all erected before the present Commission was organized. The few that were built since-four in number-were erected hastily, and without the consent or knowledge of the Commission.

There are 98 of these cottages, log cabins, shanties, and farm houses on the State lands in the Adirondack Preserve. The greater part of them were erected before the State came into possession of the ground, the owners of the buildings having received permission to build from the persons who owned the land at that time, but who subsequently lost their title to these forest tracts through some tax sale.

In Essex county, near the Boreas River, are eleven families living on farms in the Preserve who bought land of a prominent Glens Falls lumberman, taking a contract in each case instead of a deed. They had made one or two payments on their con

tracts, when this land owner, failing in business and getting in arrears for taxes, lost his lands at a tax sale, and the occupants found that, through no fault of theirs, their homesteads and farms had passed into the possession of the State of New York.

When the State made its purchase of 75,000 acres of forest land from Dr. Wm. S. Webb, in 1896, there were some occupants on the property thus transferred, one of whom had been in possession of his cabin on Salmon Lake before Dr. Webb acquired that territory; another had built a small hotel on Beaver River, with the permission of Dr. Webb-a stopping-place which has proved a great accommodation to the travelers, hunters and fishermen who frequent that region.

On the Lake George islands there are some cottages which were already there in 1885, when the law establishing the Forest Preserve and Forest Commission was first enacted. These cottagers erected their buildings under written permission of the Board of Land Commissioners, who appointed these persons "custodians" of their respective islands. Subsequently, in order that these people might occupy their

*The Board of Land Commissioners is composed of the Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Attorney-General, State Treasurer, State Engineer and Surveyor, and the Speaker of the Assembly. Prior to the establishment of the Forest Commission, in 1885, this Board had control of the public lands.