64 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



men to take care of the forests. We must make this 0,000,000 acres of 

 delinqiieut land productive of something. 



May I not also say a word on this sul)ject with reference to the beauty 

 of the State. Our State motto suggests that we have the most beautiful 

 of states, and it was so when the motto was made; but we are sweeping 

 away all this beauty by slaughtering the trees. Now we cannot say to a 

 man, you must plant a tree, but we have to touch his public spirit. So 

 I have been trying to argue with some of our millionaires in Michigan, 

 of whom it is said that 90 per cent of their wealth has been made from 

 Michigan hnnber, that they should endow pieces of land where nature 

 can grow forests and manage them. I believe this would be worth more' 

 to Michigan than for them to found colleges and hospitals. In closing 

 I want to ask you to stand by the forestry commission in their efforts 

 to solve this important question. 



GENERAL DISCUSSION". 



Dr. Alfred C. Lane: The forestry question is broad. It is not merely a question 

 of growing timber, but a question of keeping the sands from shifting, of the supply 

 of city water, of the water power for rivers, etc. So far as the timber work is 

 concerned, it must be done by corporations or by the State; individuals won't do 

 much : we cannot expect them to plant on a large scale. On the wliole it is best for 

 the State to do it. The Agricultural College and University can assist greatly. 



L. B. Rice: I want to speak a word for the Carolina poplar as being a first-class 

 soft tree. I know a tree 15 or IG years old which measured seven feet four inches 

 round, four feet from the ground. The lumber is better than cottonwood. You can 

 saw them into thin boards which are good for buggy boxes, etc. It will grow on 

 sandy soils and if put in deep, will keep the sands from drifting. 



Q. What is the cost to the State of advertising these delinquent lands which Mr. 

 Wildey mentioned? 



Mr. Wildey: It cost the State last year $G6,3G7 to advertise these lands and $2,000 

 for the land within the forest reserve alone. 



Hon. Arthur Hill : Being a lumberman I am always uneasy at a forestry meeting, 

 but I will suggest the reason why the lumberman did not preserve the forest. It was 

 simply because he did not foresee the future : he looked through the wrong end of the 

 telescope. Had he known how things were developing and what a constant demand 

 there would be for the smaller varieties of timber, I have no doubt he would have 

 conserved the forests. But he did not see, and he felt that it would not pay him to 

 hold his timber in the tree, that the only satisfactory business proposition was to 

 cut the tree and get his money out of it, just as any of you would have done probably. 

 Now that this sacrafice has taken place, there is only one thing to do. The State 

 must get possession of these lands because there will be no taxes and the State can 

 keep out trespassers and fires. 



Hon. A. M. Todd: A few years ago I went searching for trees for a wind-break for 

 a peppermint farm. I wanted one several miles long. I got 200 trees of Carolina 

 poplar from the nurseryman. From these trees I made cuttings. Today I have two 

 or three miles of the best wind-break I ever saw. These were set on black miick. I 

 imderstand that the Carolina poplar is splendid for railroad ties, and that it makes 

 good pulp for ])aper, while it grows on all soils. 



Miss Mary Sherman: Some years ago a farm came into my possession on which 

 Avas a twenty acre wood-lot. I have had a constant fight against tenants and hired 

 men to cut the trees in that wood-lot. The point I wish to make is, you farmers nmst 

 educate your men and boys to honor the tree on the small farm. I want you to come 

 to the relief of the wood-lot. 



Mr. Burgoyne: My observation is that in Saginaw county the rivers are very much 

 lower than they were years ago, and I am satisfied it is due to the cutting of the 

 forests. 



