FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 59 



WEDNESDAY FORENOON. 



This session was devoted to the discussion of problems relating to For- 

 estry, The chair was occupied by Hon. R. D. Graham, of Grand Rapids. 



NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF REFORESTATION IN MICHIGAN. 



BY HON. CHAS. W. GARFIELD^ GRAND RAPIDS. 



In discussing the topic assigned to me in connection with this forestry 

 session my first thought is that man's plain duty here in this Avorld. 

 when he touches material things, is to subdue and cultivate rather than 

 to waste and destroy. In dealing with the earth and the productions 

 thereof there is a plain obligation to maintain the ability of the earth 

 to support its population without impairment. There is also an auxil- 

 iary responsibility, inasmuch as this world is the most beautiful of any 

 world we have had to do with. The preservation of its attractions as 

 a living place is one of vital importance. The progressive agriculturist 

 of today emphasizes the necessity of maintaining the fertility of the 

 soil, speaking of the soil as capital and contending that a waste of fer- 

 tility is a waste of capital. The application of this principle should be 

 patent to us all. The forest, like coal and oil and fertility, is capital 

 stock. Production without impairment is scientific, production at the 

 expense of a portion of the capital is wasteful and in some senses a griev- 

 ous wrong. 



Statistics show conclusively that the forest capital of the world has 

 been very rapidly reduced, and while in some countries efforts have been 

 making for repairing the loss, in our own country and especially in our 

 own State almost nothing has been done. Still the wonderful draught 

 is going on continuously. During the last fifty years the increase per 

 capita in the use of wood material by our industrial nations has been 

 remarkable. This in face of the fact that substitutes of all kinds have 

 been suggested and employed. It is stated that the money value resulting 

 from the mere conversion of our wood products equals at present two per 

 cent annually of the entire wealth of the nation. If this were simply a 

 conversion from one form of capital to another the loss would not be so 

 important, but through wasteful methods not more than thirty per cent 

 of the real value of the forest product destroyed appears in some other 

 form of capital. This indicates strongly the importance of putting 

 thought into deforestation as well as into forest recuperation. The 

 waste would not be so terrible if it were simply measured by the loss in 

 forest products but the incidental loss is greater than the direct one. 

 The influence of deforestation, when carried to extreme as it is being car- 

 ried in our State today, upon agriculture is vital. 



