FKOCEEDINGS OF THE AUTUMN MEETING. 69 



Let me read from a letter written by F. E. Skeels of Grand Rapids, who 

 has been recently examining the lands of the Agricultural College in 

 Wexford county, less than a hundred miles from this place. He says: 



"I send my report of Wexford county, some portions of which are very 

 hilly. These hills make lumbering expensive. The present system of 

 clearing the land is the worst that could possibly be followed. Usually 

 the bark-peelers come first. The hemlock is cut from June 1 to Septem- 

 ber I; the logs are peeled, cut, and skidded in the fall, and hauled away 

 when snow comes. Often the logs are left in the tree, to be dug out of 

 the snow when cut. The brush is never piled except when in the way 

 of the 'bark toads' which collect the small piles of bark and haul out to 

 truck-roads. If cut at all, the hard wood is taken in the winter, and now 

 only the cream is taken. There are thousands of cords of wood going to 

 waste on almost every clearing. The poorer trees are never cut. When 

 the land is left in this way, one might as well say good-bye to the sur- 

 rounding timber or to the village surrounded by such clearings. Yet 

 this is just the condition in which the speculators are leaving the land 

 every month in this locality. These 'clearings' form one of the most deso- 

 late pictures the eye can rest upon. The dry hemlock tops need but the 

 faintest spark from the pipe of the careless fisherman or laborer, or pass- 

 ing engine, to become a glowing furnace, to be directed by the wind as far 

 as there is anything dry enough to burn. These fires seem to be confined 

 to the vicinity of villages and railroads, and no new territory has been 

 burned over in Wexford and Manistee counties. 



"The matter of trespass is one which has heretofore done more damage 

 than fire. The stumps are all that are now left as evidence of the pine 

 cut twenty or more years ago by trespassers. Recent trespassing is con- 

 fined to isolated trees. Last year and two years ago much stealing was 

 done in Wexford county, but prompt detection and settlement has appar- 

 ently stopped it. Mill-owners are at fault in this work, and often encour- 

 age the cutting." 



Last winter, Hon. A. T. Linderman introduced a bill in the legislature, 

 in which provisions were made to care for state lands. It failed to pass, 

 for some reasons unknown to me, but apparently the strongest objections 

 came from men who wished to be let alone in their present wasteful man- 

 agement of the lumbering industry. Michigan has some good laws on 

 the subject of forest fires, but in may places they are not enforced. The 

 state needs a Parkhurst or a Roosevelt to set people to thinking and act- 

 ing on the subject of forest fires. Our state needs one or more active 

 men working with the advice of a commission, to keep moving on this 

 subject. It would save to the state many times its cost. Information 

 concerning various branches of forestry, should be freely disseminated 

 among the people — not information of a trashy or sentimental or imprac- 

 ticable nature, but information of practical value. In timber, in lumber, 

 in young living trees, in fertility of the soil, in buildings, fences, and farm 

 crops, to say nothing of human lives, the state is devastated almost 

 every year to the extent of many thousands, and perhaps millions, of dol- 

 lars.*^ To some extent, at least, experiments in other states and countries 

 have demonstrated that much of this loss can be prevented. Long ago 

 Europe passed through the period through which our state is now pass- 

 ing. Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 



