C4 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



New York controls an area covering three millions of acres of land in the 

 Adirondack region. Other states are following in her train, establish- 

 ing reserves and encouraging private enterprise in this direction. In 

 Michigan an interest is manifested that, if rightly directed, cannot fail 

 to secure good results. As one result of what this agitation has already 

 done let me call your attention to the Michigan Forestry Commission 

 and what it desires to accomplish. This Commission was created in 

 1899 for the purpose of gathering statistics regarding forest products, 

 disseminating information and creating an interest in the preservation 

 of our forests. It is required to report to the legislature what data 

 it has gathered and to recommend needed legislation. The Commission 

 in 1900 recommended the establishment of a forest reservation at the 

 headwaters of several of the larger streams of the State that have their 

 sources in Roscommon and Crawford counties.' For this purpose the 

 Commissioner of the State Land Office was directed to withdraw not to 

 exceed two hundred thousand acres of land in the counties named. The 

 reasons for the selection of this location were many but the two that 

 largely influenced the selection were: First, the fact that within this 

 territory the State was the owner of the greater portion of the land by 

 reason of delinquent taxes. The other, that it would in time protect 

 the headwaters of streams flowing southwest, northwest, southeast and 

 northeast. The tract comprised twelve townships in those counties. 

 The location of this reserve met with determined opposition on the part 

 of the people residing in that vicinity aided and abetted by those' who 

 desired to speculate in this class of tax title lands. This opposition re- 

 sulted in a compromise between the citizens of Roscommon and Craw- 

 ford counties and the Forestry Commission by which a bill has been 

 introduced in the present legislature setting apart three townships 

 within the original limits of the reserve. To establish this reserve the 

 Commission has asked for the authority to purchase such lands as they 

 may deem advisable and also to dispose of other lands within the ter- 

 ritory defined by the bill. An annual appropriation of |7500 is asked 

 for in order that the purposes of the bill may be carried out and the 

 Forestry Commission given ample funds to reforest the cut-over lands 

 and to establish fire protection for what timber now stands upon the 

 lands or may in the future. The investigations of the Forestry Commis- 

 sion have led the members to believe that the most serious problem 

 they have to contend with will be the one of forest fires. Realizing this, 

 they ask for authority to employ one person, w'ho shall be known as a 

 chief .fire warden, and who shall be given power in time of need to call 

 upon such assistance as he may deem necessary in order to properly 

 pl'otect the reservation. 



It is a question with many as to whether forest reservations can be 

 maintained by the State without an annual appropriation exceeding in 

 amount the value of the timber when it has reached an age profitable 

 for marketing. In reply to this let me call your attention to the results 

 of forest management in other countries. In Saxony the gross revenue 

 from 430,000 acres from 1817 to 1826 was |1.75 per acre, the expend- 

 itures eighty cents per acre; from 1854 to 1863 the gross revenue was 

 13.54 per acre, the expenditures |1.15 per acre; from 1884 to 1893 the 

 gross revenue was |6.67 per acre, expenditures |2.30; net revenue for this 

 period |4.77 per acre. The gross yield of this area contributes to the 

 budget of the State administration fourteen per cent. While this may 



