204 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of the above. In addition to this there are at least 1,500,000 railroad ties 

 shipped from this state to other localities. 



It needs no argument to prove the commercial value of pine and hard 

 woods, but the cheaper woods, those that have been considered nearly worth- 

 less, are becoming valuable. Extensive pulp factories are t^priuijing up in 

 different parts of the State and utilizing the cheaper woods, such as spruce, 

 balsam, small Norway, jack pine and poplar. The demand for these species * 

 is increasing rapidly. 



It was these facts, and the experience Mr. Beecher had had in growing 

 plantations of trees that led to the enactment of the law creating a commis- 

 sion to open the way for such legislation and education as seemed wise in the 

 premises. 



A paper was presented by Prof. James Satterlee on 



NUT BEAKING TREES, 



deprecating the practice of figuring out grand results from planting nut 

 trees in quantity upon the outcome of a single specimen favorably located. 

 He related his own experience briefly as follows: 



"In an orchard in Montcalm county of one hundred chestnut, walnut and 

 butternut trees, planted twenty-five years ago, from twenty-five to forty feet 

 apart, on ordinary sandy loam 'oak openings' soil, the trees now average 

 from nine to twelve inches in diameter below the branches, have handsome 

 symmetrical heads, and are from thirty to forty feet in hight. One, a walnut, 

 at one corner of the field, in the richest, moistest soil, has reached a diame- 

 ter of fifteen inches below the branches, which spring from the trunk at 

 about five feet from the ground. These trees were kept well cultivated for 

 the first twelve or fifteen years, since which time they have been kept in grass, 

 and closely pastured by sheep. The trees increase in productiveness each 

 year, and now bear ten or fifteen dollars' worth of nuts each year. 



"But counted from a money standpoint, this little orchard has been a fail- 

 ure. As a timber supply it would not be a success. The potatoes that were 

 raised on an equal area of land by the side of this little orchard during the 

 past year, would buy more stovewood than the whole plantation would make 

 to-day." 



The professor, however, counted the investment a valuable one as con- 

 tributory to the satisfaction resultant upon ownership of an attractive 

 rural home. 



VALUABLE TIMBER REMAINING IN MICHIGAN. 



G. W. Hotchkiss, of the Chicago Lumbermen's Exchange, estimates that 

 Michigan originally had about 150,000,000,000 of feet, board measure, of 

 pine, but now has only from 13,000,000,000 to 20,000,000,000. During the 

 last five years there has been an average cut of 4,500,000,000. 



Arthur Hill, of Saginaw, thought Michigan now had about 30,000,000,000 

 standing pine. 



Perry Hannah said the hard wood of northern Michigan was worth more 

 than all the pine the State had ever produced. 



E. W. Barber, of Jackson, presented some gleanings from the census: 



Of the 36,755,200 acres representing the area of Michigan, but 13,807,240 



