PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 51 



for future generations. They will, of course, resist any effort to take their 

 lands from them without full comj)ensation, and in many cases, should the 

 state decide upon establishing a great public park, the value of these lands 

 will be placed at an exorbitant figure. Lumbering has been carried on 

 in the Adirondacks, as in Michigan, making a clean sweep of the timber 

 suitable for any kind of lumber, and the lumberman is followed by the 

 charcoal burner and he by the fire of the careless or criminal incendiary, 

 and desolation, and in some cases a barren desert, is the result. If these 

 lands can once be placed in possession of the state and under the control 

 of intelligent foresters trained to their business, the trees that reach their 

 prime can be converted into lumber or charcoal and the balance intelli- 

 gently protected until such time as they, reach their best usefulness. 

 There is no reason why these lands can not be made self-sustaining, but 

 they can still retain the mission that they have held in the past, a protec- 

 tion to the invaluable water supply of the eastern half of the Empire state. 

 If the project of purchasing these lands by the state and converting them 

 into a great state park should fail of its accomplishment, I believe it to be 

 within the province of the legislature to so regulate the cutting and care 

 of this timber area that the evil day when it shall become a desert shall be 

 postponed indefinitely. There is little need that I should say anything 

 to the members of the Michigan State Horticultural Society concerning 

 the desirability of the people of Michigan taking steps at once to retain 

 some of the original areas of their grand forest lands. The opportunity 

 will soon be gone forever. There are but few localities now in the Lower 

 Peninsula where a half dozen townships could be obtained in a single 

 body. An organization should be perfected at once, looking toward the 

 selection of the largest area of wild lands that could be obtained at the 

 head waters of the Manistee and Au Sable rivers, and the matter presented 

 in its strongest light and with the sanction of the State Board of Agri- 

 culture, and the Michigan State Horticultural Society, to the legislature, 

 and to seek its aid by every honorable means in the establishment of a 

 forest preserve. Failing in this, then seek the aid of public spirited men 

 of wealth to purchase the land and set it apart for a private park to be 

 kept for a game and forest preserve. But the effort to interest the legis- 

 lature in the project ought not to be a failure. It certainly falls within 

 the province of the people of the state to establish such a park, and such 

 a movement would meet the approval of all such as love the forest for its 

 own sake. It might be made to illustrate what can be done by the intelli- 

 gent care of forest lands in the preservation of their natural beauty, and 

 at the same time increasing their actual value as a source of timber supply. 

 It would meet the approval of those who would still like to see some of our 

 beautiful wild animals preserved from total extermination, and it would 

 meet the approval of every practical man living along the borders of those 

 rivers and dej^endent upon their even, perennial flow in the future for 

 the continued success of his business enterprises. 



Following this, the subjoined paper by Prof. W. J. Beal of Michigan 

 Agricultural College was read by the secretary: 



SOME OF THE REASONS WHY THE STATE SHOULD OWN A FORESTRY RESERVE. 



1. The virgin forests of Michigan are very fast disappearing or being 

 disfigured by partial cutting, burning, or pasturing. 



