156 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OP SCIENCE. 



mental importance and a necessary preliminary, step, if we are to have 

 intelligent and well planned forestrj^ work done in the State. 



•'The maps now in existence, even those of long settled parts of the 

 State, are, with the exception of those of comparatively small areas re- 

 cently produced by the United States Geological Survey, very inaccurate, 

 give no indications of the surface conditions, and none of the data de- 

 manded for even the intelligent location of a farm, and to the forester, 

 are of no use except for the most superficial study of the complex prob- 

 lems with which he has to deal. These facts have been borne in upon 

 me in my own etforts at field-work in forestry, and have caused me great 

 annovance and waste of time, for in each area studied I have had to con- 

 struct a map as I j^roceeded with my work, at great expense of time 

 and at no small cost. The contrast of having a well prepared topo- 

 graphic map was impressed upon my mind when the advance reproduc- 

 tions of the topographic map of the quadrangle including Ann Arbor, 

 became available for use. With these in hand it is possible to do at least 

 four times the work per day as formerly, for the reason that the details 

 of the topogi'aphy can be read from them at a glance and notes upon soil 

 distribution, vegetation, etc., can be indicated on them with great exact- 

 ness and yery rapidly. 



• ''Should the topographic survey of Michigan, recently begun, be ex- 

 tended over the entire State, as eventually it must be, the work of arriv- 

 ing at a final solution of the forestry problems, now unnecessarily com- 

 plicated, owing to the absence of a reliable topographic map, would be 

 greatly simplified." 



To Biologists : Nearly every civilized country in the world has pub- 

 lished the results of systematic examinations of the plants and animals 

 within its boundaries. Such a biologic survey, or study of both the flora 

 and fauna of the United States, is now being actively conducted by the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington, and either in affiliation with 

 that department or working independently, several of the states of the 

 Union are carrying on similar surveys, or have done so in the past. The 

 immediate economic aim of national and state biologic surveys, is to learn 

 how plants and animals may be made more useful to man; to ascertain 

 which are our friends and which our enemies among the living hosts sur- 

 rounding us; to discover the fungi, parasites, bacteria, bacilli, germs, or 

 by whatever name the unseen legions may be designated, which cause 

 blights among plants and disease and death of the lower animals and of 

 man. The pioneer work in this great field has been done, but the true 

 biologic study is still in its infancy. As an example of what may be ac- 

 complished by such surveys, reference need only be made to the work of 

 Major Reed in banishing yellow fever from Cuba. Similar beneficial re- 

 sults have been reached in other directions, and manv more safeguards 

 to life and means of advancing the material welfare of man, it may be 

 stated with entire confidence, will be discovered in the future. 



In the study of the vast and but T)artial]y explored domain of life, one 

 of the first steps is to make a concise record of carefully observed facts. 

 All life, it is safe to say, is molded and controll,ed by its environment. 

 The mountains are clothed with plants in orderly ranks from their bases 

 up to 1he lower limit of perpetual snow, and even above that limit lives 

 the blood-red Protococcufi. In each zone of ]dant life there are certain 

 animals peculiar to it. and. these again, in many instances, are hosts for 

 other plants and animals. This definite distribution of living forms in 



