106 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



THE FUTURE OF WHITE PINE AND NORWAY PINE IN 



MICHIGAN. 



t 



BV W. J. BEAL. 



Fifty years ago it was estimated that Michigan contained 150,000,000,- 

 000 feet board measure, of merchantable white pine. During the suc- 

 ceeding years the young trees were growing to increase the yield. For 

 a long time most people believed the supply was inexhaustible, but 

 we begin to see the. end of the virgin forests of pine. With scarcely an 

 exception, no attempt has been made during these long years to save 

 the young pines, which were started on the road to produce future crops 

 of timber. The debris was left and when dry it burned, destroying 

 the young i)ines. and in most cases, there were left no mother trees 

 scattered about the land to produce seeds, and if there were such trees, 

 the frequent fires spread over the land destroying the last vestige of 

 pines. With a continuation of the practices now generally in vogue, 

 white pine must cut a very small figure in the timber supply of Mich- 

 igan, unless artificial means are resorted to. After burning, white pine 

 doesn't sprout again and again from the roots after the manner of oaks 

 and red maples. 



In passing over the land in numerous portions of the state where white 

 pine was at one time excellent and abundant, it is now somewhat diffi- 

 cult and exceptional to find a spot of any extent where white pines have 

 survived. For a typical example, here is a piece often burned over, after 

 the timber was removed. Some logs were left and plenty of stumps in- 

 cluding those of white pine. The land is growing up to small oaks, 

 young poplars, sumachs, pin cherries, a few red maples, June berry, 

 sweet fern, roses, dewberries, low willow, but not a pine of any kind 

 is to be seen. Now we meet a man who points with pride to a pine 

 grove of less than an acre on his farm, the oldest tree of which has 

 barely passed twenty-two summers. 



Five to seven miles northeast of IMuskegon, good stumps of white pine 

 and a few of Norway are still to be seen. But little of the land is culti- 

 vated; in the open spots, cattle secure a precarious living, when not 

 too numerous. The land is growing white oaks, black oaks, sumachs, 

 June berries, some grasses and sedges and a variety of weeds, A small 

 number of old mother trees are occasionally met with, their existence 

 being due to the fact that they were never worth cutting for lumber. 

 We went over a mile along the railroad track to see one low branched 

 old settler four feet in diameter, still doing missionary work in the line 

 of sowing pine seeds for long distances, y^i the crop of young pines was 

 not abundant. Some of the young pines when only eight feet high, begin 

 to bear seeds. The dry pastured sand doesn't seem to be a favorite for 

 seedling pines. But few start under the bushes, y^\, on the whole, I 

 think Ihe pines would survive and continue 1o be more prominent, if fire 

 did not occasionally break out destroying many of them. While a new 

 crop of pines was slowly coming from seeds at disadvantage, the oaks 

 came more rapidly in 1he form of sprouts. 



