126 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PARK QUESTION. 



MRS. \V. E. BRAMHAIX, ST. PATH,. 



The present status of the forest park question is the subject as- 

 signed to me upon your program, but a preliminary word is neces- 

 sary because the matter has had a steady evolution in our purpose. 



The original desire to protect a bit of the last remaining prim- 

 eval forest in the state arose from the fact that these forests are a 

 windbreak, an additional protection to the source of the Mississippi 

 and its surrounding lakes, and a natural sanitarium, the pure resin- 

 ous air of which it should be a sacred duty to preserve to the free 

 use of the people and their posterity. Also we know that the In- 

 dians, who had become wards of the nation (which had thereupon 

 administered their lands and timber), had been, in spite of govern- 

 ment surveillance, robbed. Between one-seventh and one-third 

 of their timber is gone, and they, who owed nothing in the begin- 

 ning, now are indebted to the government to the extent of a million 

 dollars. A determination arose within us that the opening of this 

 reservation in Minnesota should not add to this scandal and outrage 

 but. be conducted in a different manner, and one that would secure 

 their rights to them. 



But no study of this subject could advance far without appeal- 

 ing strongly on the economic side, which through scientific forestry 

 offers a possibility to obtain and secure all the before mentioned 

 aims and objects and yet administer this forest upon strictly busi- 

 ness principles. Minnesota can have within her borders a perma- 

 nent growing forest with an annual yield of lumber, an object 

 lesson in forestry, and at the same time it can afford to a people 

 far from the Rocky or Adirondac Mountains the refuge of a health 

 and rest resort of recognized medicinal value in pulmonary or bron- 

 chial diseases. The beautiful lakes may be shaded and protected, 

 giving the rich heritage of a beauty spot that may yet be made of 

 economic value, nearly if not altogether self-sustaining. 



New York sacrificed her forests. At enormous expense she has 

 bought back and reforested her cut-over lands. Minnesota, young 

 and sparsely settled, will not be able to repair her mistake for many, 

 many decades if she does not profit by New York's experience and 

 avoid the error. New York has rebought and has under forestry 

 now over a million acres; Minnesota is twice the size of New York, 

 and yet when we ask for a couple of hundred thousand acres to 

 be preserved to us, a great outcry is raised, in the interest of the 

 lumbermen who are waiting for this last rich plum, that we are 

 "asking too much" and "tying up the land from settlement." 



