• OF THE 
 
 UNIVERS! ? / jf ILLINOIS, 
 
 YORK STATE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY. 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 B. E. Fkrnow, Director. 
 
 BueeETin 6. 
 
 February, 1903. 
 
 TESTIMONY 
 
 Before the U. S. Industrial Commission 
 in Forestry Matters, 
 
 BY 
 
 B. E . FERNO W, 
 
 Director New York State College of Forestry. 
 
 Reprinted from Vol. X, Reports of Industrial Com- 
 mission, 1901. 
 
 ITHACA, N. Y., 
 1902. 
 
TESTIMONY. 
 
 Question : How came the New York State College of For- 
 estry to be instituted , and what is its object ? 
 
 Answer : The College of Forestry was instituted by act of the Leg- 
 islature of New York State of March 26, 1898, for two objects, name- 
 ly, to educate foresters and to make a demonstration of practical 
 forest management on a tract of timberland in the Adirondacks. The 
 history of its origin may be briefly stated as follows : The State of 
 New York had, by various acts, declared for a policy of forest preser- 
 vation, with a view of protecting the watershed of the Adirondacks. 
 In 1885 the State possessed a property of some 600,000 acres of tim- 
 berland, acquired by tax .sales, mostly culled and more or less mal- 
 treated, and a Forest Commission was instituted for its management. 
 Although the Commission had the power to do whatever was neces- 
 sary to institute technical forest management, it failed to secure ex- 
 pert advice and to formulate any coherent plan. In exercise of the 
 power to cut timber it had nothing to propose but selling stumpage 
 to lumbermen, who continued to cull the woods of the valuable 
 spruce and pine in the same manner as before, and in consequence 
 those who saw in this method of treating the woods danger to their 
 continuance and to their effectiveness as protectors of the watershed, 
 brought about the insertion of a clause into the Constitution which 
 forbids the cutting of any trees on State lands, as well as the building 
 of railroads over State lands. By these clauses the application of 
 forestry to the State lands was effectively prevented. 
 
 At that time the public and the advocates of forest preservation 
 were still ignorant of the fact that forest preservation and forest utili- 
 zation do not exclude each other ; that the forest is preserved and 
 continued in the same way as the human race, by harvesting the old 
 crop and reproducing it. In order to demonstrate this fact and there- 
 by pave the way for a change of policy and for the introduction of 
 technical forest management, the Superintendent of the Forest Com- 
 mission proposed the institution of an experiment or demonstration 
 on a small scale, which was to show how a forester would manage a 
 forest property, harvesting and reproducing the wood crop. In order 
 to remove this demonstration, which would naturally require a con- 
 siderable time, from the danger of political vicissitudes, Governor 
 Black had it referred to Cornell University, and the College of For- 
 estry was instituted as the agency to carry out the experiment, and at 
 the same time to educate the foresters who would, in the future, man- 
 age the State’s forest property. 
 
 2 
 
The State purchased and gave to Cornell University, in fee simple 
 for thirty (30) years, a tract of 30,000 acres, located in the heart of 
 the Adirondack^, to serve this demonstration ; it appropriated a round 
 sum of $30,000 to start the experiment, and another $30,000 to serve 
 as working capital, with the proviso that the profits may be used for 
 the management and improvement of the property, which, after thirty 
 years, is to revert to the State. For the College a separate annual 
 appropriation of $10,000 has been made. 
 
 Q. How is the College mcniaged, and what has been the 
 (5° attendance ? 
 
 ^ A. The College is managed as an integral part of Cornell Universi- 
 y ty under the Board of Trustees, with an advisory Forestry Council to 
 s** suggest its policy. A director and two assistant professors, with the 
 ^ President of the University, form the faculty or teaching force ; the 
 y experiment station is managed by the director with local assistants. 
 
 O The full course, leading to the degree of Forest Engineer (F.E.), 
 comprises four years, the first two being mainly taken up with fuuda- 
 "q mental and preparatory courses which are furnished by the University 
 ^ faculty ; the last two, with forestry branches under the professors of 
 ® the College. Correspondingly, the tuition fees during the first two 
 years go to the University ; during the last two years, to the College. 
 As, however, students from New York State receive free tuition, 
 --which privilege has been freely used, the income to the University 
 ^ has, so far, not been in proportion to the advantages derived by the 
 ^College. 
 
 ^ During the first year, ending June, 1899, four students were regis- 
 tered ; in the second year, the registration rose to 17 ; and in the third, 
 -^present year, to 26 ; about 50% each year coming from New York 
 q S tate. The indications are that for the next year the number will be 
 QoX least doubled.* 
 
 Besides these students registered with the College, students from 
 „ pother departments of the University have taken some of the forestry 
 0 courses, notably students of Agriculture, Architecture, Civil Engineer- 
 * ing, and Political Economy, so that the number of students benefiting 
 Vby the College have been 26, 45 and 57 respectively in the three years. 
 
 For the spring term of the junior and senior ye^irs, the students go 
 riwith the professors into the College Forest, and are instructed in 
 ^practical work, timber estimating, forest survey, forest measuring, 
 planting, thinning, marking trees for felling, etc., besides having 
 lectures on fish and game preservation. 
 
 * During the College year, 1901-2, 40 students have been registered, or nearly 
 
 three times the number of the (14) students remaining from the previous year. 
 
 3 
 
Q. Where do the graduates of the College expect to find em- 
 ployment ? 
 
 A. The first and, so far, the only graduate, leaving last year, has 
 found employment with the New York State Forest Commission ; of 
 the four “special” students who took only one year of forestry stud- 
 ies, three were employed by the Federal Forestry Division, and one 
 took position with a lumber firm in Michigan. Of the five students 
 graduating this year, one has secured a position as forestry expert 
 with the State Agricultural Station of Connecticut ; another as Assist- 
 ant Director of Grounds at Chautauqua.* 
 
 The Federal Government, preparing for a management of the 
 40,000,000 acres of forest reservations will, no doubt, absorb a con- 
 siderable contingent of technically trained men ; some of the states 
 besides New York are developing forest policies which contemplate 
 State Forest Reservations under technical management, and when 
 the value of men trained in forestry becomes appreciated by logging 
 and lumber firms, openings will be found in that direction, and also 
 as managers of large estates including forest properties. There will 
 also probably be other colleges of forestry instituted, calling for a 
 teaching force. 
 
 Q. Will you state briefly what forest management implies ? 
 
 A. Forest management implies that the forest is to be continued as 
 such ; just as agriculture has in view the continued use of the soil for 
 food-crops, so forestry has in view the continued use of the soil for 
 wood-crops. Forestry is the business and art of producing wood- 
 crops and deriving a revenue therefrom ; it implies, therefore, the 
 harvesting of the mature crop, in order to make room for a new 
 young crop ; the forester, therefore, is, in part, a lumberman, the dif- 
 ference being mainly in that the lumberman merely cuts the virgin, 
 natural forest, without any reference as to what becomes of what he 
 leaves ; he works for his present pocket interest, without conscious 
 regard to the future ; the forester cuts it with a view to securing a 
 second, third and continuous, and, if possible, better, economically 
 more valuable crop; he works for the present and the future; he 
 must be willing to forego some of the present profits, which the 
 lumberman takes, for the sake of future profits, which the lumber- 
 man does not take into consideration. The lumberman compares to 
 the berry picker in the wild woods ; the forester to the market gardner, 
 applying skill to the production of his crop. 
 
 *In 1901, of the six graduates, and six special students and two seniors who 
 then had left the College, four had found employment in the U. S. Department of 
 Agriculture, one in the U. S. General Dand Office, three in the Philippine Bureau, 
 two in State Institutions, 4 in private employ. 
 
 4 
 
There are two parts to forest management, just as in any other 
 technical business, agriculture included, namely, silviculture, which 
 is the art of using the forces of nature so as to secure the best wood- 
 crop ; aud forest economy, which concerns itself with the business 
 arrangements. The time element, the long period between the start- 
 ing and the harvesting of the crop, from 50 to 100 years and more, 
 renders the business arrangements peculiar, and sui generis , different 
 from any other business, and hence, especially on account of the time 
 element, as a business by itself, forest management does not recom- 
 mend itself to the small capitalist. It is peculiarly a business for 
 large capital and for the State or long-lived concerns, like counties, 
 cities and other communities. The State, especially, is concerned in 
 the future, is long-lived, and hence can afford to forego present 
 revenue or spend money now for the sake of future satisfaction. 
 
 Of the three factors of production, nature, capital and labor, in 
 forest management the last counts least ; hence the small capitalist 
 who expects to secure by intense application of skill the largest mar- 
 gin from his capital has here the least opportunity, except under very 
 special conditions. The large capitalist, who can wait while nature 
 is accumulating the wood-crop, who does not want to depend upon 
 labor and its uncertainties, who wants a safe continuous investment, 
 with sure, though comparatively small returns, is best fitted to carry 
 on the forestry business. 
 
 Q. Is forest management profitable ? 
 
 A. No business can be said to be profitable except under certain 
 given conditions. Forestry, applied to our virgin woods as a 
 business, working, as it does, for the future, can certainly not be 
 profitable immediately, except under very favorable and particular 
 conditions, namely on very large areas of well stocked timber with 
 large capital. In the long run, however, it can be made and will be- 
 come as profitable as any other business, and as it has become in 
 Germany and other countries. As long as virgin supplies, which 
 have cost nothing to produce, compete in the market, there is natur- 
 ally little inducement to apply skill and labor, i. e ., money upon the 
 production of wood crops. Nevertheless, the time has seemingly 
 come when natural supplies of timber ready for use have been 
 sufficiently reduced to foreshadow a balance between supply and de- 
 mand, which may call for effort to increase the former, and those 
 who are now beginning to look out for the future will undoubtedly 
 reap their reward. This is especially true with certain kinds of 
 timber supplies, notably pulp-wood. 
 
 Reliable and intelligently computed statistics on standing and 
 growing timber supplies — which do not exist and are, to be sure, 
 
 5 
 
most difficult to obtain — would stimulate the forestry business more 
 than any other agency. Here is where the Federal Government 
 should have long ago taken the initiative. 
 
 Q, What relation has agriculture to forestry ? 
 
 A. Forestry can utilize the soils which are not fit for agriculture ; 
 hence there is not necessarily any interference from that point of 
 view. The farmer should keep all the poor parts of the farm for 
 wood cropping, which, incidentally, will bring him profits from the 
 otherwise useless portions. Besides, in certain locations, the bene- 
 ficial effect of a forest cover, as on hill tops, steep slopes, especially 
 with stiff, impermeable soils and the protection against winds may 
 induce location of woodlots even on agriculturally valuable soils. 
 The farmer can practice silviculture on his woodlot, applying such 
 principles as I have outlined in Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 67, U. S. 
 Department of Agriculture, entitled “ Forestry for Farmers.” 
 
 But it is not to be expected that the farmers’ woodlots will ever 
 furnish the enormous supplies of log timber — at present not much 
 less than forty billion feet, B.M. — which our market requires. Not 
 only would it not pay for him to allow his trees to grow as long as is 
 needed for such log timber, but even silviculturally speaking, the 
 woodlot is fit only for growing firewood, posts, poles and small di- 
 mensions. Log timber must be grown on large contiguous areas by 
 large capitalists who can afford to have their capital tied up for a long 
 time and are not tempted to cash it as soon as it becomes possible. 
 
 Q. What function does the State Forest Commission have , 
 and what relation does it hold to the College ? 
 
 A. There is no direct organic relation between the College and the 
 Commission, except that the Commission is by law required to fur- 
 nish protection against fire on the College tract. By implication, 
 rather than by direct language, the Commission should choose its 
 professional employes from the graduates of this College, and last 
 year (1900) it did so employ the first and only graduate. The Com- 
 mission might also apply to the College for any expert advice that it 
 may desire in formulating plans for the management of the State’s 
 forest property. Such a relation has so far, however, not developed, 
 and in fact no attempt at professional forest management, as far as 
 forestry interests are concerned, has been made ; the Commission has 
 hitherto only exercised police powers, preventing forest fires and 
 stealing, enforcing the* game and fish laws, looking after contracts 
 arising from the purchase of timber lands under reservation of cer- 
 tain kinds and diameters of softwoods, etc. 
 
 The constitutional clause prevents the Commission from doing any 
 forestry work which necessitates the cutting of trees. There would, 
 
 6 
 
however, be many other opportunities for forestry work on the one 
 and one-half million acres controlled by the State, like the planting 
 up of burnt areas, the survey and subdivision of the forest property, 
 the taking of stock preliminary to future plans of management, in 
 which the Commission could be assisted by the College and employ 
 its graduates. 
 
 Q. What is the policy in the management of the College 
 tract , and what has been accomplished so far ? 
 
 A. The College tract is typical of the Adirondack woods, a hard- 
 wood forest composed of sugar maple, yellow birch and beech mixed 
 with spruce and hemlock, and in some parts white pine, besides some 
 other species occurring sporadically. Most of the College forest has 
 been culled by lumbermen of the merchantable pine, which is nearly 
 extirpated, and of the spruce, which has thereby been considerably 
 reduced. It is, therefore, the leavings of the lumbermen, a forest 
 culled of its most valuable materials, which has been set aside for 
 this experiment. There are, besides, the usual balsam and cedar 
 swamps and considerable areas of burnt lands, grown up to aspen 
 and white birch, where formerly the white pine was the dominant 
 tree. 
 
 The silvicultural policy, briefly stated, is to replace the old 
 decrepit natural forest by a new, more valuable 'forest more or less 
 rapidly. 
 
 The financial policy is to bring about this change in the conditions 
 of the property, as far as possible, by using only the profits which 
 come from the harvest of the old crop. The first step necessary was, 
 therefore, to find a market for the hardwood, which did not exist 
 locally. Since the hardwoods do not float, railroad construction is 
 absolutely necessary for transporting the harvest out of the woods. 
 This means that a comprehensive plan for the entire harvest is 
 necessary. Since the proportion of logs to cordwood in these hard- 
 woods is about as one to three in volume, and .since for the success of 
 the young crop the debris of logging must to some extent be taken 
 care of, it was even more essential to find a market for the cordwood 
 than for the logs. Consequently a contract was entered into with 
 the Brooklyn Cooperage Company to erect stave mills, wood alcohol 
 plants and a railroad for the purpose of taking the entire hardwood 
 crop, logs and cordwood, that might be cut for the next fifteen or 
 tw T enty years. 
 
 In this way the market question for the least saleable part of the 
 crop — the most difficult one to solve — was settled at once. The 
 company has invested a large amount in construction of mills and 
 railroad, and the first year’s cut has been made, harvesting from five 
 
 7 
 
hundred acres round 2,500,000 feet of logs and about 8,000 cords, be- 
 sides small quantities of softwoods which it became necessary to 
 remove. Close utilization of every part of the trees cut, the saving 
 of the little odds and ends and of the inferior materials must be 
 attempted to secure the profit. 
 
 Regarding the reproduction of a crop, various methods are avail- 
 able, the object being to have the relatively more valuable conifers 
 reproduced in preference to the hardwoods. Whatever young conifer 
 growth is present is to be saved in the logging, occasionally seed trees 
 of conifers as well as hardwoods are to be left to fill out the crop. A 
 satisfactory natural reproduction, however, requires that the old crop 
 be removed gradually, while the young crop is gradually developing, 
 giving light to it as the different species require. But such a proced- 
 ure — gradual or repeated logging over the same area — is costly ; the 
 scanty allowance of working capital has prevented it in the first 
 season. Besides, nearly all the hardwood trees, even the small or 
 young ones, are defective and unpromising, mostly owing to injury 
 by fire, while the spruces which might be left as seed trees, being 
 shallow rooted, are readily thrown by winds in the severer openings, 
 hence it appears in many places preferable, less expensive and surer 
 of results to artificially secure the young crop by planting. Conse- 
 quently, large nurseries, in which plant material is grown from seed, 
 to be transplanted to the woods when two to three years old, have 
 been established. In these mainly white pine and spruce, together 
 with other coniferous species are grown, more than a million seedlings 
 being now on hand. 
 
 Planting is done only with conifers, since the hardwoods are able 
 to reproduce themselves readily without assistance, furnishing a suf- 
 ficient amount of this desirable admixture. 
 
 This at least is the theory upon which the management has, so far, 
 proceeded. The burnt areas and openings are also to be gradually 
 planted up to useful species. So far about 165 acres have been 
 planted in varying manner, for experimental purposes.* 
 
 The most difficult problem here, as elsewhere, unsolved and taxing 
 either ingenuity or the purse, is protection against fire and getting rid 
 of the unavoidable debris that comes from logging when the brush- 
 wood cannot be disposed of. An attempt to utilize the latter has so 
 far not proved a success financially. Against the fire danger constant 
 patrol seems to be the only help, all other means seeming more 
 expensive and less efficient. 
 
 *This acreage has been increased in 1901 to 255 acres, in part on the cut area. 
 
 8