HARDWOOD RECORD 



i? 



Alma; L. E. Knappen of Grand Rapitls; 

 Prof. Roth of Ann Arbor; the Hon. C. J. 

 Monroe of South Haven; John S. Porter of 

 Saginaw; Prof. 0. C. Simonds of Chicago; 

 John J. Hubbell of Manistee; Land Cominis 

 sioner Rose of Lansing; C. E. Bassett of 

 Fennville and Morris Quinn of Saginaw. 



Mr. Green, the energetic young lumber manu- 

 facturer of the upper peninsula, as provisional 

 secretary of the forestry association, has been 

 doing yeoman-iike service in securing members 

 and arousing interest in the work. He has 

 found that great ignorance exists among the 

 people of the state in regard to the aims and 

 workings of forestry. 



Dr. Beat, who preached forestry at meetings 

 of the State Pomological Society way back in 

 1S7S. said that he was still in the harness and 

 gave a very Interesting talk. lie suggested that 

 a paper be published in the interests of the 

 movement. 



Hon. George B. Hortou, master of the state 

 grange, spoke in the interests of farm forestry, 

 and as chairman of the committee on resolu- 

 tions, which made its report at the final session, 

 his idea on the value of the farm wood lot will 

 be found therein. He thinks that the commis- 

 sion should broaden its work to include the 

 interests of the farmers in the southern part of 

 the state. 



J. J. Hubbell of Manistee said in part : "It 

 is practically impossible to protect virgin tim- 

 ber in the northern part of the state, under the 

 present system of taxation. Our state tax com- 

 mission is not responsible for it. The high 

 valuation of timber was made by local asses- 

 sors. School districts have been gerryman- 

 dered for building tine school buildings, where 

 there are few children ; many costly steel 

 bridges have been built on roads little trav- 

 eled, on the ground that they will be useful 

 some time. The non-resident owner of timber 

 lands has to bear the burden." 



Land Commissioner Kose staled that he 

 owned reforested tracts of land that for fifty 

 years had not produced a dollar in revenue, 

 yet they are being taxed upon an assessed valu- 

 ation of $50 per acre. 



C. E. Bassett, secretary of the Michigan Hor- 

 ticultural Society, said that its members were 

 heartily in sympathy with the movement and 

 that they were practical foresters, covering the 

 land with fruit orchards. 



Afternoon Session. 



In the absence of Mayor Sweet, Elvin Swar- 

 thout, a prominent attorney of Grand Kapids, 

 welcomed the members to the city in an elo- 

 quent manner. He referred to the chain of 

 summer resorts extending along the entire west- 

 ern border of the state, where the resorters are 

 setting out trees which will undoubtedly prove 

 a valuable adjunct in the forestry movement. 



"When I was a boy," said Chairman Hill, 

 "my father had a mill on the Saginaw river, 

 and all his logs were taken from booms across 

 the river. That was as far as he had to go 

 for timber. Now how remote our forests are, 

 when lumber comes from away across the con- 

 tinent. We are approaching a timber famine. 

 I rode last spring from London to Southamp- 

 ton and within fifteen miles of London there 

 Is a young pine forest which is larger than the 

 total pine area in Michigan today. France, 

 England and Germany are in the front rank 

 among nations in providing homegrown timber. 

 I visited the cement plant at Elk Rapids re- 

 cently, and it seems to me that anyone who Is 

 making cement, or any substitute for lumber, 

 is a public benefactor. One would think that 

 with the increasing use ot steel, cement, etc., 

 In building operations that the demand for 

 lumber would diminish, but it is not so. The 

 use of lumber is Increasing continually. Lum- 

 ber that was used In house building twenty-one 



years ago and graded as mill culls at $4 per 

 thousand is good enough now to go in with the 

 $30 grade. It is really a crime against the 

 state and its citizens thai its denuded lands 

 should remain waste, when they will grow Um- 

 ber. I recall now tin- Chandler marsh north 

 "i Lansing, riot. Beal says that willows win 

 grow there am experts tell me that 



willow Is as good as spruce for wood pulp. 

 Spruce Is bringing $12.50 per cord in Canada 

 for paper pulp. People are paying si;, for 

 elm stumpage, such as has sold for $1 within 



the past fifteen years. It is a g I Investment 



to plant whatever will make lumber, posts or 

 pulp — anything Lis land of ours green 



and decent." 



Alfred Gaskill of Washington was glad to 

 represent tin' National Bureau of Forestry at the 

 Michigan meeting. lie suid that Michigan is 

 a conspicuous case among the states of "the 

 greatest having and the least possession." The 

 tax situation wns summed up as follows : "No 

 individual will bold land as long as it is taxed 

 beyond its producing power." 



Gen. Ladner, a resident of Big Rapids for 

 the past thirty nine years, spoke of the devas- 

 tation of timber during that time. Judge 

 Reilly of Detroit said that he has come across 

 the state to attend the convention simply be- 

 muse the forestry microbe had been lodged in 



his l.l 1 by Prof. Roth. 



J. R. Wylie, a bank president of Grand Rap- 

 ids, regarded it as a most hopeful sign when 

 lumbermen got together to discuss plans for 

 reforestation. He pointed to the small red dot 

 on the map of Michigan, where the state forest 

 reserve is located, and remarked that it was a 

 most pitiful start. Ho referred to the drainage 

 laws of the state which are now constructed on 

 {he theory that only cultivated lands are val- 

 uable. This was another menace to the forests. 

 Chairman Hill mentioned the fact that the 

 company in which he is interested litis bought 

 the stumpage on government land in Califor- 

 nia, the requirement being that only the ma- 

 ture trees shall be marked for cutting ami 

 thai all debris shall be taken care of. This 

 is an experiment with the lumber company and 

 its cost and general workings are still to be 

 determined. 



Prof. C. D. Smith of the Michigan Agricul- 

 tural ...liege reported that some of the tam- 

 aracks and spruces of the upper peninsula are 

 being defoliated by Insects. He tendered the 

 good offices of the college- as attendant phy- 

 sician to the trees. 



Henry II- Gibson, editor of the Hardwood 

 Be, okd of Chicago, poke in jusl no ation of the 

 pioneer lumbermen of the state. lie alluded 

 to the great opportunity ol Michigan, with its 

 large acreage of waste lands, which if properly 

 managed could be made to pay a revenue suffi- 

 cient for running the 



Waiter C. Winchester of the Foster-Winches- 

 ter Lumber Company, Grand Rapids, favored 

 ration of what Michigan bas left of her 

 forests, rather than the slow process of plant- 

 ing trees and waiting for the bar-, 

 referred to the great money value of turning 

 what is left on timber tracts, after cutting off 



the principal crop, Into w 1 alcohol, acetate 



of lime and charcoal, as justifying the lumber- 

 man in cutting clean as he goes. 



lion Chas. W. Garfield of tne 



, Isslon, was called 

 upon and he responded with ins chan 



tness. "I've g..t n- eatrj 



crank." he said, "ami I'm 



forestry leanings dale hack to the time when 

 I was three years old and assisted father In 

 planting a honey locust In our yard. 1 am 

 mventioi We : ' all 

 tor we are " "'•'" in 



statecraft. This I Btlng." 



Evening Meeting. 



At the opening of the evening bleb 



held In the Byerson library building, Mr. 

 Garfield read a number of letters from promi- 

 nent business men of Michigan, who were un- 

 tend, but v I great Interest 



in t! ..tit. Among this number 



H I M..i her • in"! <Hffs 



Iron Company, W. II White ••! Borne City and 

 President J. D. Hawks ot .it & Mack- 



inac railway. 



Prof. Bogue the agricultural college de- 



scribed briefly tie- method in use at the college 

 for 1. He said In 



part: "Pre] ed, as f..r onions. 



There Is an average of 28.000 white pine seed 

 per pound and a pound will sow n strip four 

 feet wide and l" feel loi »ltu forest 



leaves two in. lies deep, then build bath screen 

 to keep the li I "ill germinate 



like beans, that Is, it will 'bow up.' Tskc off 

 leaves and transplant. Norway pine seed 

 Is scarce and we have bad to pay $0.r>0 a 

 pound for It. We have 8,000 Norways started 

 on the college farm." 



I'rof. Roth described the situation of the 

 state with reference to Its tax title lands, say- 

 ing In part : "One sixth of the entire land 

 area bas been sold for taxes, and much of It 

 has been sold many times. During the past 

 live years the bookkeeping and advertising >c 

 i against these lands bad amounted to 



smi... in. I it Is mere waste and s^lsy. If 



the small German state of Wurtemberg can 

 derive a net Income of two million dollars per 

 year from its forest of 400,000 acres, what can 



Michigan do with B, 1,000 s. re,?" Refer 



ence was also made to the work that Japan Is 

 doing along forestry lines 



The slat.- method Of dealing with Its lands 

 was discussed by i:. a. Wildey of Paw Paw, 

 former land commissioner, and Terry I'. Pow- 

 ers, former auditor general. J. J. Hubbell of 

 Manistee was the last speaker and said that 

 he had been connected f..r years Witt a con- 

 cern that had cut annually fifty million feet 

 of the northern Mich He bad often 



visited boards of review to secure more equit- 

 able rates of taxation. A tai for cutting 

 seemed to him the bl • tor. saving the 



Eon 



Second Day's Session. 



trolt, repent ot the 



state university, compllmenti-d the members of 



the convention on having devoted themselves 



rellgiouslj to business. He said: "Ns home 



in the agricultural portion of the state is com- 



dlot We should not in 



wholly from the 



esthetic and 'he educational s.de of tree cul- 



dur forestry department In the t'nl 



•, of Michigan i- growing." The speaker 



paid a high compliment to Mr. lllll of Saginaw 



;,„,1 to Hi. ladies of the state for ihelr efforts 



.If of fori 



.- speakers of the morning were the Rev. 

 1 p, Arthur. D. B. Waldo of Knlamaioo and 

 • r i the Massachusetts forestry 



bureau. 



Chns. W. Garfield presented the report of the 

 committee on permanent organisation, and the 



articles of association wen I officers 



i year: the first annual 



•ij of 



November. membership fee and an 



mint dues arc $1 



,,„ adjonrnmenl Prof Both left w-ltb a party 



ve lands 

 .titles. 



Resolutions Adopted. 



■ u "P lT ,m ' 



our 



the rem 



• millions 



.1 in lumbering and 



i snd are 



Ing I a re 



