PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 125 



The masses of people in the country know but little about it. While they 

 will listen eagerly to a speaker who discourses on remedies for some insect 

 pest which has just devoured their crops, or gives some remedy for the 

 apple scab or plum rot, or tells how to exterminate some vile weed, there 

 are no calls for a speaker who will give the best modes of managing a 

 reserved wood lot, or how best to deal with the subject of forest fires. We 

 need 10,000 where we now have one who shall interest themselves in vari- 

 ous departments of forestry. We need an enlightened public opinion oU 

 forestry. The Agricultural college is hardly doing its share to encourage 

 the movement. 



' ' Well, ' ' I hear some one say, ' ' You, old fellow, are professor of forestry, 

 and why not take hold of this matter and set the movement on its feet?" 

 That seems a reasonable question ; why not? The courses here are already 

 replete with studies well nigh to suffocation, and no one can be found in 

 our faculty who has any time he thinks he can swap off for lectures on 

 forestry ; on the contrary, each is begging for more time in his specialty — 

 and the students hardly carry their present burden. 



In the past, our state has made a few feeble efforts, at rather long inter- 

 vals, by way of enacting laws on this subject. This is natural and to be 

 expected, for the mass of people are little interested, and laws are of little 

 benefit unless sustained by a healthful public sentiment. A man usually 

 speaks of what he thinks, and sees what is in his head. Farmer A sees 

 two cords of wood in a tree, or a nice lot of fence posts because he has fire- 

 wood and fence posts in his head. He isn't troubling himself in regard 

 to the benefit the tree will have on the farm crops of the neighborhood, 

 nor the effect it has on the landscape, nor how it might benefit the next 

 generation. 



The subjects of forest fires and tree planting have received attention 

 from legislators in many states, but often the laws are of little use; people 

 dislike to complain of offenders. In the state of Maine and some portions 

 of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, laws pertaining to forests begin to be 

 appreciated and enforced because of the persistent efforts of a few persons 

 organized into societies. Michigan, a state specially adapted to tree 

 growing, has done very little in this direction, except to permit everyone 

 to cut and destroy as he chooses, provided he own the land on which he 

 operates. No matter if he leave dead rubbish which in the next dry 

 weather will most surely take fire and spread desolation for miles around. 

 This is a free country ! A man would be liable to arrest for putting a 

 little sand in his wool or in his wheat to increase the weight; but he can 

 kindle a fire with impunity that willruin his neighbor's crops, spread to 

 his buildings, and devastate his woodlands. 



The value of the timber crop has been found to be in the United States 

 about one third in value of all the crops taken from the land in a year. 

 Many states enact laws to protect game and fish. The general govern- 

 ment and some of the states have appropriated means to investigate the 

 habits of the clam, oyster, lobster, whitefish, trout, etc., with a view to 

 securing a better supply, by stocking the lakes and rivers with eggs of 

 these edible aquatic animals, but our forests have been almost left to 

 chance or the caprice of ignorance and selfishness. The supply of trees 

 affects many industries ; it affects the climate, the health of the people, 

 the steadiness or uncertainty of the water in the streams, the amount of 

 debris which accumulates at the mouths of the rivers. Considering its 

 great importance in many respects, we are doing almost nothing for forestry. 



