126 STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE 



no use for the laud, aud iu most iustauces would, uuder favorable conditious, pro- 

 duce another forest. These lands have been deeded by the Auditor General to the 

 State of Michigan and are uow under the control of the Commissioner of the State 

 Land OfHce and can be located by bona tide residents for ten cents per acre. The 

 State Tax lands have become the property of the state for the non-payment of 

 taxes, and if not redeemed by the original owners, or by some speculator who sees 

 enough timber upon certain tracts to warrant the payment of back taxes, will in 

 time become Tax Homestead lands. The figures upon the map at the letter T 

 denote the number of descrijitions in each county, held by tiie state as tax lands, and 

 although the descriptions vary in area from the village lot to entire sections of land 

 it is safe to estimate that in the northern counties each description will mean at 

 least SO acres. The Agricultural College aud Primary School lands are lands from 

 which no timber has been removed and are for the most part too valuable for farm- 

 ing purposes to be used as forestry reserves, especially as there is so much other 

 available territory which seemingly is not wanted for any other purpose. 



A glance at the map will suffice to show that nearly all of our northern river 

 systems have their source or sources in an area which has an abundance of Tax 

 Homestead and State Tax lands. Thus the Muskegon river rises in Roscommon 

 and Missaukee counties. The Manistee and Au Sable rivers, although the former 

 discharges its waters into Lake :Michigan on the west side of the state and the 

 latter into Lake Huron on the east side, rise in Crawford and Otsego counties 

 and the source of the one is but a mile or two from that of the other. The 

 Sturgeon, Pigeon, Black aud Thunder Bay rivers in this same locality, and in 

 these counties and those through which these streams flow we find the greater 

 portion of these available forestry lands. 



Thus in Missaukee we have 12.385 acres of Tax Homestead, and an estimated 

 area of 113,000 acres of State Tax laud, or in round numbers 125,000 acres or over 

 five entire townships. In Roscommon county we have an aggregate of about 250.- 

 000 acres or over ten townships in these two classes of abandoned lands. 



Crawford county has 185.000 acres. Otsego has 90,000 acres. Montmorency 240.000 

 acres. Oscoda. Ogemaw, Alcona and Iosco each over 250.000 acres; Alpena aud 

 Presque Isle nearly 300,000 acres each. This entire territory is abundantly watered 

 with beautiful lakes aud streams abounding in trout, grayling and other fish that 

 attest to the purity of the water, and the deer aud other wild animals of the lower 

 peninsula are almost entirely confined to this locality. 



This region then, because of its area, water and excellent topography, is the 

 place upcin which to rear up a new forest, and in fact there is no other location 

 in the lower peninsula where the state can control an area of land sufficient in 

 extent for that purpose. 



The present condition of the original forests of Michigan is the same as that 

 of any other property that has passed into the bauds of an owner, who sees in it 

 only the dollars and cents which the article will return when put upon the market. 

 Fully ninety per cent of all the wooded lands in our state are owned by parties who 

 will convert the timber into merchantable forms as fast as the market will receive 

 it. This assertion can be verified by an inspection of the offices of the numerous 

 lumbermen who still operate in this State, and who display maps showing lots, 

 .sections and in many instances whole townships, belonging to the company eon- 

 trolling the same. The forest lands so held are doomed, and the length of time 

 they will remain iu their present condition is dependent entirely upon the caprice 

 of the owner aud no great amount of good can come from any discussion of these 

 lands. Nor is this condition to be entirely deplored. Much of the timber in these 

 forests is already past its prime; especially is this true of the larger tracts of white 

 pine and the crop should be harvested before many years pass by. Yet if we could 

 interest some of these large owners, men who have become millionaires by handling 

 Michigan timber, to use some care in the cutting of these forests, Ave should accom- 

 plish much. 



There is always a good strong undergrowth in these wooded tracts, among which 

 are many seedlings of the better sorts of timber, and if these could be preserved 

 the undergrowth around them would shade and protect until they would finally 

 take care of themselves. It is not necessary to remove the old tops and pieces of 

 tree trunks that are always left as debris after cleaning oft' for timber, no person 

 who is familiar with the"^woods and the conditions attending the lumbering of a 

 tract of land would ever advocate the removal of this refuse in order to burn it in 

 some other location, and as a matter of fact, it is much better to let it lie and decay,. 



