FORESTRY PLANTATIONS IN MICHIGAN. 51 



FORESTKY PLANTATIONS IX MICHIGAN. 



E. E. BoGUE. 



Under this heading- is included not only those plantations that have 

 been made artificially bnt also those areas that have been managed with 

 the idea of a future crop. Where a piece of land has been cut over 

 and has managed to grow a second crop amid the adverse conditions 

 without some aid from man, it can scarcely come under this heading. 



It is the pur]»ose of the writer to obtain data on this subject as fast 

 as possible so that we may be able to compare as the years go by. 

 Some student or visitor at the College every now and then tells me of 

 some new plantation. In the preparation of this paper, Mr. Garfield 

 has told me of several silvicultural areas of which I had not before 

 known. 



For lack of dates these can not be considered in their chronological 

 order. 



On a map of the State I have })laced markers at the places where 

 there are anv silvicultural areas of which I have anv knowledge. 



We find that there are twenty-one plantations located in eighteen 

 counties. 



Probably the largest area is that of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Com- 

 pany, of which Mr. Samuel M. Higgins, forester for the company, writes 

 me as follows under date of Feb. 15, 1904: ''There are of planted trees 

 all in one plantation living at the close of the first season, in round num- 

 bers, iM),()0() Norway spruce, 500 Douglas spruce, 10,000 white pine, 1,000 

 Norway pine, 500 Scotch pine. This plantation covers thirty acres. 

 These trees will receive all possible protection, as will the 490,000 acres 

 of timber land owned by the company. 



Of course, it is impossible to say how much natural reproduction there 

 is on this land. Grand Island, of 13,000 acres, owned by the company 

 is patrolled. It is the aim of the company to improve in every way pos- 

 sible its fire protection service." 



These are the only areas on the upper peninsula known to me that 

 are managed for a future crop. 



It seems strange that the people who live in that part of Michigan 

 from which has been harvested the largest aniount of the most valuable 

 timber, and a part that is much better adapted by nature to timber than 

 to farm crops, think least about reproducing another crop of trees and, 

 furthermore, have no faith in, but. on the other hand, decided opposition 

 to forestry. 



In the Lower Peninsula there are no plantations north of Saginaw 

 Bay, except two that have been made on State land by State officials. 

 The Forestry Commission has made a start on two and one-half town- 

 ships in Roscommon and an adjacent half township in Crawford county. 



The plantation that tells us most about the reproduction possibilities 

 in the jack pine sand is that made by the Botanical Department of the 

 College, under the direction of Dr. Beal in 1888. One acre of typical 



