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liberal and enlightened policy in maintaining or restoring a suitable amount of forests 

 on their lands. A number of western railroads, though obliged to contend with great 

 natural disadvantages, have taken hold of this work with great enthusiasm, and several 

 of them are now employing paid foresters to direct the work of raising and caring for 

 forests along their lines. 



(4) The farmers of the State have very much to do with the future of our forests, and, 

 unfortunately, they have not yet, as a rule, taken a practical interest in maintaining or 

 restoring them There in, however, no class more ready to enter into undertakings that 

 promise to be productive of good, and none more accustomed to meet and overcome diffi- 

 culties. When the farmers of Michigan are once possessed with the conviction, that trees 

 are often far more valuable than any other crop, and that they render the farm more 

 productive and worth more per acre, trees will be planted. 



(5) A few at least of the educational institutions of the State can do an important 

 work by giving forestry an honourable place among the subjects of their respective 

 courses of study. Whether there is as yet a science of forestry in the United States or 

 not, there will be before long, and intelligent and interested action on the part of such in- 

 stitutions will aid greatly in establishing the science, and in gaining for it the confidence 

 and encouragement of both government and people. A beginning of this kind has been 

 made at the University of Michigan, in connection with the School of Political Science 

 recently established there, and the lectures on forestry are attended by a class of about 

 fifty. 



(6) The General Government still owns something over a million acres of land in 

 Michigan, and the State Government has yet large tracts of land under its control. If, 

 instead of throwing this away, or selling it at the rate of $18 per IGO acres, any consid- 

 erable portion might by any means still be kept in permanent forests under Government 

 control, and this control be exercised wisely and for the public good, as is done in the 

 State forests of the old world, forestry in Michigan would become an established fact. 

 In some or all of these ways it is to be hoped that the great work of restoring the forests 

 of the State may be accomplished. 



POPLAR TREES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND CHARCOAL. 

 By Wm. Saunders, London, Ontario. 



Within the past few years the consumption of the wood of several species of poplar 

 for paper making has greatly enhanced the value of these trees, and so extensive has been 

 the demand that in many sections it has been difficult to supply it from the immediate 

 neighbourhood, and this wood, hitherto of little value, now commands a price nearly or 

 quite equal to the more valuable sorts. The species which have, up to the present time, 

 furnished the bulk of the wood used in paper-making, are the aspen or Trembling-leaved 

 Poplar ( Popuhis tremtdoidcs), and the Silver-leaved or Abele of Europe fPopnlus alba). 

 These have also been used to some extent by charcoal-makers, and are found to produce 

 a superior quality of charcoal. Doubtless the Large-toothed Poplar ( Popidus grandi- 

 dentata), and the cotton-wood of the North- West (Popidus monili/eni), and probably 

 the Balsam Poplar ( Populas bahamifera), being similar in their structure and character- 

 istics, will prove almost, if not quite, equal in value to the two species first named. 



These trees are of very rapid growth, most of them thrive on inferior soils, and are 

 capable of cultivation in almost all the settled portions of the Dominion. The aspen is 

 said to be the most widely diflfused tree of North America, and one of the most abundant 

 in the Far West, where it ranges from the Arctic regions to California. It extends over 

 the southern half of the Labrador peninsula, and is common throughout the whole region 

 from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence near the mouth of the McKenzie River, about lati- 

 tude 67. Throughout the North- Western Territories it is the commonest tree in the 

 partly-wooded and prairie districts, and is the chief fuel used at the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany's posts and by the Indians. The quantities of this wood existing in the forests 

 throughout this vast area are immense. 



