308 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MINNESOTA'S INTEREST IN FORESTY. 



GEN. C. C. ANDREWS, CHIEF (FOREST) FIRE WARDEN. 



"Germany," said Prince Bismarck, "can organize a vast army 

 because she has enough educated men for commissioned officers. It 

 will not do for any of her neighboring countries to say they can do 

 the same, for they cannot." So Minnesota by her natural advan- 

 tages of climate and soil can do more in forestry than most of her 

 sister states. Rain and sun do not fail ; and in scattered localities 

 she has in the aggregate about 3,000,000 acres of hilly, rocky or 

 sandy soil on which coniferous forest will permanently flourish. If 

 these three million acres were to be planted in the next eighty years, 

 an equal proportion annually, at the end of that period and forever 

 after, the state would derive from her forests a net annual revenue 

 of $3,000,000, representing a capital of $100,000,000. 



The great benefits to our state from such forests over and 

 above the magnificent revenue in money would be: first, a regular 

 supply of lumber, which will be very much needed when its popula- 

 tion shall be 4,000,000 or more ; second, the prosperity that comes 

 from a multitude of laborers receiving steady wages in the forests 

 and in the manufacture of lumber; and, third, those general bene- 

 fits where the non-agricultural lands of a country are well forested, 

 such as good roads in the forests, sustained water supply in streams, 

 amelioration of climate and beauty of landscape. 



The state will have to purchase a portion of these three million 

 acres of non-agricultural lands in order to put them in forest, and a 

 beginning should soon be made. But, probably 2,000,000 acres of 

 these lands now belong to the United States ; and it is not unlikely 

 that our Minnesota delegation in Congress could have them granted 

 to our state for forestry purposes. The lands would first, however, 

 have to be examined by the United States geological survey to de- 

 termine what subdivisions are unsuited for general agricultural pur- 

 poses. The United States geological survey can make such exami- 

 nation without any further legislation. Those who feel an interest 

 in the matter could properly write to their senators and representa- 

 tives in congress on the subject. 



This, briefly, is but one view of Minnesota's interest in the 

 science of forestrv. 



Mr. Seth Kenney : "I have come to the conclusion that if a 

 man wants to be in the line of progress he wants to join the horti- 

 cultural society." 



