DESTROYING THE FOREST

Clear-cut pine and spruce.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, October 24, 1890.

DESTROYING THE FOREST.

The Ravages of Lumbermen and Pulp Mills in the Adirondacks.

(From the Albany Times.)

   Chief Warden Garmon of the State Forest Commission has just returned from a tour through the Adirondack region. He says that he never saw such activity among the lumbermen in the forest before. The pulp mills are also showing remarkable activity. The proposition to make a state reservation of the region may have something to do with this. Near Tupper lake a new pulp mill has just been put up which has a capacity of 30,500 feet of logs per diem. All the old mills are either enlarging or pushing on the work by the aid of an additional force of workmen. The timber used in the manufacture of pulp is mainly spruce. The only large spruce tree district in the whole country that amounts to anything is right up there among the Adirondack mountains of New York state.

   Mr. Garmon says the destruction these pulp mills are making in the forests is frightful. One tract of 33,000 acres and another of 17,000 acres up in the St. Regis country in less than three years have been denuded, actually stripped of all trees, spruce and hard timber, big and little. Besides these large tracts there are enough small ones stripped to make the total cleared fully 200,000 acres. The bulk of this went beneath the stones of the pulp mill. But spruce timber is also in great demand among builders for floorings to dwellings. It is much lighter and tougher than pine and commands a higher price. If the inroads of the pulp mills are continued for five years, with the corresponding increase in productive power each year that has characterized this year, it will result in the cutting of about every stick of spruce timber on the mountains except where the state owns the lands.

   Another fact which the warden dwells upon as a reason why the state should speedily acquire possession of the bulk of the Adirondacks is the private ownership of nearly every lake in the whole region. Individuals and clubs, he says, are all the time getting possession of lakes, big and little, and when this was not done, all the eligible sites for building were gobbled up. Building sites in the Adirondacks, he thought, would soon command prices now paid for New York city lots. Already $6,000, $8,000, and $10,000 had been paid by individuals for small parcels of land upon which they desired to erect a cottage or a small hotel.
Recommended: New York State Forest Rangers

Frederic Harrison, British author.

FREDERICK HARRISON ON EDUCATION.

(Forum for October.)

   Neither at school nor at college was I ever put through the mill. I read the classics with delight, so as to enjoy them for themselves, without ever grinding them up into verbal exercises. In history, I believe I had the very best of teaching; for which I am ever grateful. And in philosophy, we were taught to use our own common sense, and not to repeat tags of windy systems. I managed to satisfy our tutors; but they taught me to read for my mind's sake, and not for the sake of "the school's." I always felt complete indifference to prizewinning in all its forms, and I was happy enough not to be pressed into that silly waste of time by parents, tutors or friends.

   I read what I enjoyed, and I enjoyed what I read. I have now an experience of some forty years as student, teacher and examiner; and it forces on me a profound conviction that our modern education is hardening into a narrow and debasing mill. Education is over-driven, over-systematized, monotonous, mechanical. At school and at college, lads and girls are being drilled like German recruits—forced into a regulation style of learning, of thinking and even of writing. They all think the same thing, and it is artificial in all. The round of endless examinations reduces education to a professional "cram," where the repetition of given formulas passes for knowledge, and where the actuate memory of some teacher's "tips" takes the place of thought.

   Education ought to be the art of using the mind and of arranging knowledge. It is becoming the art of swallowing pellets of special information. The professor mashes up a kind of mental "pemmican," which he rams into the learner's gullet. When the pupil vomits up these pellets, it is called "passing his examination with honors." Teachers and pupils cease to think, to learn, to enjoy, to feel. They become cogs in a huge revolving mill-wheel; which never ceases to grind and yet never grinds out anything but the dust of chaff. In thirty years the academic mill, which runs now at high pressure like a Cunard liner racing home, has never turned out one single fresh mind or fertile idea. From this curse of modern pedantry, my companions and I were happily saved."

Recommended: Frederic Harrison

NEIGHBORING COUNTIES.

   CHENANGO.—Mrs. James A. Kinney, of Afton, suicided by jumping into the river at that place, Tuesday.

   Chenango County Democrats have nominated A. B. Robinson for the Assembly, H. T. Owen for Treasurer, Dudley Breed for Superintendent of the Poor, R. A. Thompson for Coroner, W. T. Priest for Justice of Sessions, E. A. Kinney for School Commissioner in the 1st District and A. B. Merriam in the 2d District.

   On Saturday, October 4th, 1890, Alfred Bentley, while plowing on the old Hartwell farm at Sherburne, Four Corners, found within three feet of one another, eight brown flint arrow heads, well finished but of different sizes. On the previous day he found a stone pestle on the same lot. A few years ago near the same place was found a circular wall of stones in the ground enclosing some coals. It had doubtless been used for cooking in some former age, and the coals had been preserved from that time. The eight arrow heads then were probably the equivalent of forty rounds in our days. The place where the relics were found is near the east line of lot No. 20 in North Norwich.

   MADISON.—Lenox town auditors audited bills amounting to $4,600 for rebuilding bridges swept away by the June floods.

   The Canastota Match Company has been gobbled by the Diamond Match Trust, which now owns thirty match factories and controls the entire make. The machinery has been moved from Canastota to Frankfort, and the building is now empty.

   Thaddeus Case, a resident of Weedsport, who has been staying with his brother, Lorenzo Case, at Chittenango, during the past year, hung himself with a vest on Tuesday last, by placing one arm hole over a door and protruding his head through the other. He had in his pocket when found $300, and it has since been learned that previous to doing the deed he contracted for a minister, hired a grave dug and paid for a headstone and coffin.

   TOMPKINS—The chorus of the Ithaca Choral Club is about fifty strong.

   The new students at Cornell will number at least five hundred.

   The enrollment of Ithaca public schools is over 1,600. The average attendance last month was 1,470.

   The foot ball game on the Campus, between the University of Rochester and Cornell, was easily won by Cornell.

   In 1834, says the Ithaca Democrat, there were many goats raised in Tompkins county, but few are now found excepting in possession of secret societies. Bibles were also found in the thirties, but the churches and societies of to-day are where the book is most conspicuously seen.

   Girls and young ladies have been repeatedly followed and insulted while walking on State street during the evening hours, One of the despicable offenders was arrested Sunday evening. He does not want his name known to the general public, he says, "because it would make him nervous."

   The Lehigh Valley and Elmira, Cortland & Northern railroad companies are now preparing to erect a union freight depot at Freeville. The building will be located upon the south side of the E. C. & N. track and east of the Lehigh Valley track, and will extend one-hundred feet on both. The five or six foot bank upon the chosen site is now being taken away and the earth distributed along the Lehigh Valley road. The long suffering public will appreciate even a union freight depot but a commodious passenger depot for the use of the two roads would be a still greater blessing.

HERE AND THERE.

   Smoke Manhattan Club cigars.

   Saturday is the second day for [voter] registration. Do not delay.

   The hitching sheds on the First Baptist church property are being repainted which greatly improves the appearance of the same.

   Fruit thieves are about. One night last week the cellar of Mrs. John Fosmer, on Cemetery street, Homer, was relieved of twenty-two cans.

   A meeting of the King's Daughters will be held at the residence of Mrs. George I. Pruden, 15 Maple avenue, Saturday afternoon, at the usual hour.

   Mr. Edwin M. Hulbert, of this place, bought 60 tubs of butter of the East Homer creamery last week, it being the make of the first fifteen days of October.

   Voters who cannot read or write can obtain a paster ballot of one of the Democratic ticket peddlers, and all they have to do is to paste this on either of the three ballots received of the ballot clerks, fold the same, and hand the ballot to the inspectors.

   The cobweb party is the latest social hilarity. A number of strings are wound around piano and chair legs, etc. Each player is given a number and selects a string. The strings all lead to one place, and the first to unwind his or her string gets the prize.

   Doctor C. W. Parker has just removed seven polypi from the nose and throat of Mrs. Clark H. Wadsworth, of Fitz avenue. Mrs. Wadsworth has not breathed through the nose for over two years. After the operation she could breathe very easily, and it afforded her great relief.

   Emerald Hose company are building a new approach to their company quarters, corner of Railroad and Church streets.

   Sunday afternoon the funeral services of Mrs. Jane E. Barber, widow of the late Paris Barber, were conducted from the family residence in Homer, the Rev. Geo. F. Clover officiating.

   The marriage of Mr. Andrew C. Schermerhorn, the popular day operator at the Homer [train] station, to Miss Lottie M. Stone, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon T. Stone, was celebrated on Thursday evening last. They will reside on South Main street, Homer, after returning from their tour.

   At 12:57 Thursday, a call from box 333 caused no small commotion. The companies were not the only ones who got mixed on the number. It appears that workmen had been tearing down an old barn in the rear of No. 21 Groton avenue, and Mrs. Jane Pope, who occupies the house had, during the forenoon, gathered up a quantity of shingles, placing them in the oven to dry. They became ignited and the house immediately filled with dense smoke, causing the sounding of an alarm. The damage was slight. The Excelsior Hook and Ladder company had the misfortune to have the rear end of their truck broken while on duty.