46 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and expensive labor would then be necessary to restore the coun- 

 try to its present condition. The risk is too great and entirely 

 unnecessary. The park could easily be made immune to this dan- 

 ger, and provisions should be made to that end. No one man can 

 do it. 



Transfer of Reserve. The most satisfactory solution would 

 seem to be, as is now proposed, to place the park under the control 

 of the State Forestry Board, which is best equipped for the hand- 

 ling of such a problem. A forester, traint^d in the care and pro- 

 tection .of the forest, could then be placed "n charge of the reserve 

 and proper measures taken for its protection. 



Fire Protection. A comprehensive system of fire-breaks 

 should be made around the boundaries of the whole reserve to 

 protect it from fires originating without, with secondary breaks in 

 the interior to prevent fires originating in one portion of the re- 

 serve from invading the whole area. The part of the road in the 

 reserve, now poorly laid out and in poor condition, should be re- 

 located, put in thorough repair and incorporated in the system of 

 fire-breaks. 



Ideal Place for Forest School. The conditions on the reserve, 

 even its shortcomings in the necessity for planting and fire pro- 

 tection, make it an ideal place for a Demonstration School of For- 

 estry. In such studies more can be learned in a week from actual 

 work and illustrations than from a month of lectures. The work 

 in the demonstration forests at Yale and Michigan is there looked 

 upon as the most important in the whole curriculum. The Min- 

 nesota Forest School, in one of the greatest timber states in the 

 union, is without a foot of forest on which she can practice her 

 preachings. The use of Itasca State Park for this purpose 

 would make the Forest School for the University of Minnesota 

 better equipped than any other forest school in the country. It 

 would in effect form a forest experiment station. 



An Assembly Hall. The old lodge, now uninhabited, could be 

 fixed up at a small cost as a central messroom and assembly hall to 

 accommodate a large number of students. Stables, sheds and other 

 buildings are in fairly good repair. Around the main building is a 

 good camping ground for any number of tents. 



Seeding and Planting. The necessary planting up of the open- 

 ings in the forest would require a large nrrsery. This (under the 

 supervision of a trained man) would furnish ample opportunity — 

 the best in the country — for the students to learn nursery practice 

 and woods' planting. It would increase the value of the forest 



