News and Notes 179 



duced by far the greatest per cent, of loss of any species, and 

 the least amount of growth, while the Locust and Catalpa, 

 though apparrently all living, have not had as thrifty a growth 

 as was expected. However, in each case, judgment must be 

 withheld until a few more years shall have demonstrated the pos- 

 sibilities of these species. 



Of interest to the forester, and showing what these mis- used 

 pine lands are capable of doing, is the showing made on the 

 lower Reserve south of Houghton Lake, where all efforts thus 

 far have been restricted to protective work. This protection ex- 

 tends over nearly 45,000 acres, and has been accomplished at 

 the small expense of about $600 a year, while the sales from 

 timber alone on this same area, without involving any live or 

 green material, brought in over $800 the first year and about 

 $1,100 during the present year of 1905-6; this proves conclu- 

 sively the feasibility of protecting and improving these forests 

 without actual cash expense to the State, and makes the present 

 policy of the State in throwing away these holdings, and even 

 expending money to dispose of them, all the less warranted. 



At the request of Hon. J. D. Hawks, President of the Detroit 

 and Mackinac Railway and one of Michigan's foremost railway 

 men, the forestry department of the University of Michigan un- 

 dertook the establishment of a forest nursery, some forest 

 plantations, and also the incidental embellishment of property 

 belonging to the road, known as Ta was Beach. The ground is a 

 remarkable piece of filled beach. Ancient dunes running in 

 parallel series, almost east and west at this particular point, make 

 up the dry land and are separated from each other by lines and 

 areas of swamp lands which are partly bogs and marshes but are 

 more generally grown up to Tamarack and White Cedar. As is 

 the case with a goodly portion of the Tamarack in this State, the 

 greater part is attacked by the saw-fly, and its future, therefore, 

 is stiil uncertain. The dry stretches of dune lands were occu- 

 pied at one time by forests of White Pine and Norway Pine, 

 which were lumbered and burned over at a very early date. At 

 present these dry sand lands are occupied by broken stands of 

 Scrub Oak and Jack Pine, frequently interspersed with young 

 stands of White Pine and Norway Pine ; these better species 

 having found their way from various and distant sources. 



The object of the railway company is to hold this tract of ap- 

 proximately 1200 acres as forest land, managing it in the most 



