84 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



ation and the importance of a correct decision in the selection of the 

 species to be planted cannot be exaggerated. 



It is also a question of no little importance to determine the proper 

 blending of species and the thickness of planting to secure the proper 

 form of the tree and the production of the greatest quantity of merchant- 

 able lumber. The questions of light and shade have been thoroughly 

 studied in Europe with reference to the species there grown. There re- 

 mains a vast field of investigation in regard to the native or introduced 

 trees of America. Under this head come, besides decisions as to varieties 

 and thickness of planting, questions as to the size of openings in the 

 forest, the wind mantle, and other matters relating to the possibility of 

 <;orrecting climatic conditions. 



The State as a whole is more interested in securing proper treatment 

 of the forests in the relatively thickly settled portions of the State than 

 in reforesting present stump areas. There are to be found on manj' farms 

 in the lower four tiers of counties areas that would better grow crops of 

 trees than crops of cereals. In the future, not remote, many acres now 

 under the plow will be replanted to trees. I conceive it to be a possible 

 duty of the Experiment Station to suggest to the farmer, either as a 

 result of experiments carried on at the College or upon such lands as the 

 State may appropriate for the purpose, or as a result of the work done 

 in foreign countries where forestry plantations have been successfully 

 managed for generations, many points essential to the success of this 

 venture of which the farmers are now necessarilj- grossly ignorant. 

 Through the bulletins of the Station suggestions may be made to farmers 

 as to. the proper trees to grow and the right methods of raising them 

 from the seed or setting them out in the waste places along streams or 

 on the steep hillsides. The part which the State can play toward build- 

 ing up forest areas large enough to noticeably affect either the climate 

 or the distribution of the rainfall is necessarily limited. The great bulk 

 of the work must fall upon the private citizen who owns land suitable 

 to the puri)ose. The farmers must therefore be educated first as to the 

 necessity of forestry plantations, and second as to the shortest and best 

 methods of securing them. At present most southern Michigan farmers 

 seem to think that their duty to the farm ends with the cultivation of 

 the plowed areas and that nature will take care of the wood lot and pro- 

 vide an abundant harvest of valuable timber, even if her domains are 

 invaded by flocks of cattle and sheep. This and similar fallacies may be 

 dispelled by proper instruction through the medium of the bulletins of 

 the Experiment Station. 



Along two lines the Station may be helpful to the State in this matter 

 of forestry. First, by aiding a forestry commission which is empowered 

 to prevent forest fires and the depredation of vandals and live stock on 

 the areas devoted to the undertaking, by counsel in formulating plans 

 and by co-operation of the botanist, entomologist, and other scientific 

 men of the Station staff in carrying out these plans and warding off 

 insect and fungoid diseases. Secondly, and this is by far the most im- 

 portant function, by awakening in the minds of the farmers in the south- 

 ern part of the State an interest in the care of forests, a desire to extend 

 forest areas and a willingness to set out new trees and care for existing 

 forests by protecting them against fires and live stock. 



I desire to call your attention to the fact that owing, as I believe, to 

 the unsanitary condition of the old barn in which the College cows are 



