The 516,778 cords of pulpwood were composed, as nearly as could be estimated, of spruce, 80 per cent.; balsam, 10 per cent.; poplar (aspen), 5 per cent.; the remainder (5 per cent.) was composed of hemlock, basswood, and other species in small quantities. There are three large pulp mills in New York that make a high grade of calendered paper for books and magazines, these mills using for this purpose a mixture of poplar (aspen) and rags. The item of "hardwoods, round (261,566 cords) represents wood and small logs bought by the cord, instead of by log measure, and used in the manufacture of excelsior, wood acid, veneering, basketry, cheese boxes, and in various other industries. The item of "softwoods, round softwoods, round" (32,695 cords), represents, also, wood bought by the cord, and which was used for heating, staves, butter firkins, tubs, pails, and other purposes. These statistics are based on the reports made to this Department by 2,488 different mills, a number which will give some idea of the work necessary in collecting and compiling this information. Furthermore, before any correspondence with the mill owners is undertaken it becomes necessary each year to revise carefully our directory containing the name and address of each firm or individual engaged in any industry which obtains its supply of wood from the forests of this State. In compiling this directory each year a blank form is mailed to the supervisor of each one of the 933 towns in the State with a request that he enter on it a complete list of the mills in his town that use logs or round wood from the forests of New York. This work having been completed, another and different blank form is sent to each mill owner on which to make a return showing the amount of timber, by species, consumed during the year. Although the total output of the New York forests and woodlands now exceeds each year a billion and a quarter of feet, board measure, this amount is divided among so many mills, including a large number of portable ones, that none of their reports show a large cut as compared with some mills in other states. The mills in New York reporting the largest amount of lumber sawed in 1906 were: *Brown's Tract Lumber Co., Fulton Chain, N. Y. Moose River Lumber Co., McKeever, N. Y.. 22,464,590 22,061,568 21,095,170 16,576, 128 12,472,723 I1,351,683 10,951,727 10,300,000 8,530,974 8,250,000 In our former reports the list of mills with the largest output of sawed lumber contained the names of firms that no longer appear in such lists, their omission indicating plainly the rapid depletion of the timber on the tracts where they once carried on extensive operations. Reforesting Operations. The number of seedling trees planted last year was small as compared with our operations of this kind in previous years, owing to a lack of fouryear old plants in our nurseries and funds for the purchase of stock else *Two mills; includes one at Giles, N. Y. |