48 THE MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



improvement. A forest ranger, the first State official ever appointed 

 to guard the forest, our greatest destructible property, was employed 

 and the greater part of this property patrolled. A number of fires were 

 put out before they had chance to take on serious proportions, and 

 trespass and the destruction of the scattered timber and young growth 

 was checked and largely prevented. The people of the district have 

 assisted with a will and are evidently becoming convinced of the ad- 

 vantage which the reserve is to town and county. 



Plant stock has been engaged; 50,000 tress are to be planted this 

 spring and a large nursery will be established near Higgins Lake, where 

 millions of young pine and other trees will be raised. 



The commission has just employed one more ranger and a forester, 

 who will form the working force on the reserve this year. 



While this beginning is of great value, not only in itself, but more so 

 as the inauguration of a new and right policy on the part of the State, 

 yet it is necessarj'' that more be done, that this first victory be followed 

 up and that the right policy be applied to all State holdings. Especially 

 is it necessary that the people of the State learn about this vast problem, 

 this extraordinary opportunity for good, and that they express their 

 will in the matter. 



There are many considerations which enter into this problem, and 

 it is necessary that all of them receive their due attention. When the 

 law establishing . the reserve was up for consideration, there was of 

 course much opposition. Aside from some minor points, the main objec- 

 tions were about these : 



(1) The land should be settled; "we want the country built up and 

 not a wilderness." 



(2) The land is all fit for settlement. 



(3) The worst of these lands are at least well suited to grazing. 



(4) The reserve does injury by withdrawing large bodies of land 

 from taxation and thereby deprives town and county of the wherewithal 

 to maintain schools and roads and perform the duties expected of polit- 

 ical organizations. 



With regard to the first of these, I can do no better than quote Hon. 

 Chas. W. Garfield, of Grand Rapids, when he said: "The two great 

 assets of the State are, first, its people, and, second, its lands," adding 

 that it is quality more than numbers which is desired. If I may en- 

 large upon this, I should say that it is certainly far better that farm set- 

 tlement shall continue in a healthy growth, that we should invite good 

 farmers to take the millions of acres of good land still to be had in this 

 State, rather than to invite colonization by speculative methods which 

 bring poor, inexperienced people on poor and difiicult lands. We have 

 all heard the shout : "Oh, but there are thousands of emigrants from 

 the cold and poor countries of Europe who are glad to get a chance to 

 build up homes on these pinery lands.' But is it a great gain to the 

 State if a lot of these poor people are colonized under conditions where 

 we know they must remain poor and where a congregation of like peo- 

 ple, as well as poverty, will almost compel them to retain their methods 

 and prevent their becoming Americans ? Is this not a matter of adding 

 number rather than quality? 



Again we may ask : If only about two-thirds of the land of Southern 

 Michigan has proven plow land, if half of Pennsylvania is not improved 

 land, if three-fourths of Maine is woods or at least unfilled ground, if 



