THE STATE REVIEW. 



Michigan waste lands were reforestized. The in- 

 come of the State of Michigan would be fully ten 

 times as great, as lumber is higher in price here 

 than it is in Europe, or. in other words, the State 

 of Michigan might have an income of $25,000,000 

 a year from its forests with which to defray its 

 expenses. 



The taxes of the state are made up as follows : 

 The tax assessor. April 1st, makes his rounds 

 among the farmers and puts a value upon their 

 lands. As no crop is in the ground, simply the 

 land is assessed, and whatever is found remain- 

 ing of the crop from the year before. When the 

 iorest lands are reached an entirely different pro- 

 cedure is followed. Trees growing, according to 

 our Michigan state laws, are considered real es- 

 tate and their value is added to that of the land. 

 Should an individual attempt to reforestize lands, 

 he is confronted with a condition which makes it 

 impossible for him to undertake this work. Each 

 year the value of the trees on his land is ad- 

 vanced, and you can readily see that where the 

 taxes are, as in some of our counties, as high as 

 20 per cent, the reforestizing of land by private 

 enterprise is made impossible. 



What we need in Michigan is a definite, ra- 

 tional and business-like treatment of state lands. 

 That the present policy of forcing these lands 

 upon the people be abandoned and a minimum 

 price of $5 per acre be placed upon the land, 

 plus the value of the standing timber, and that all 

 iie public and to the highest bidder. That 

 the auditor general be compelled to deed all lands 

 delinquent three years or more to the state land 

 commissioner, and that it shall be unlawful for 

 this officer to expend the funds of the state in 

 .1 continued advertising and bookkeep- 

 ing beyond the peril d of five years. Further, 

 that the state adopt a definite forest policy. First, 

 the extension of the forest reserve to all 

 larger hi.' ite lands as are not suitable 



for agricultural or ordinary crops. Second, better 

 fire protection to all forest districts. Third, rea- 

 sonable and equitable taxation of forest prop- 

 erty, so that private enterprise may be encour- 

 aged in a more conservative use of the remnants 

 of forest still in existence and to the reforestizing 

 of lands. Purest trees, like any other growth to 

 be regarded as a crop and not as real estate. 

 That a maximum rate of taxation be fixed by 

 law and that the rate be the average for the state. 



Legislation Is Needed. 



Fore-try wa- the topic under discussion at the 

 October meeting of the Detroit branch of the 

 A--<>ciation of Collegiate Alumnae. Carl E. 

 Schmidt. Prof. Filih.-rt R nh. pn.:"e-r of forestry 

 at the L'niversity i f Michigan, and state forestry 

 warden, and Miss M. Baldwin, of Birmingham, 

 chairman of the fore-:n committee of the State 

 Federation < i Women's Clubs, made addrc- 



Mi<> Baldwin stated that as a result of the work 

 of her commitu-e 1 S 4 women'- clubs in Michigan 

 have received literature bearing on the forestry 

 (liiestii'ii, and each have given from two to three 

 meetings to its consideration. 



Mi-s Baldwin said: "We women must see to it 

 that no member of the legislature goes to Lansing 

 this year without a knowledge that the women of 

 the state want a reform m our land laws. Our 

 committee has endeavored to reach every candidate 

 before election, and we have tried to pledge them 

 to forestry reform. The candidates from Wayne 

 county have not been interviewed, and I urge you 

 to see them after election and get pledges from 

 them in this matter. See your township road 

 commissioners also, and get them to plant trees, 

 as the law provides, along the public roads." 



The alumnae agreed to work to this end. 

 WOMEN CREATE SENTIMENT. 



Prof. Filibert Roth, after saying that the women 

 of Michigan have created the sentiment that lies 

 back of the forestry movement, said : "President 

 Roosevelt has stated that forestry reform is the 

 most important general problem in the United 

 States at the present time. Michigan has 2,000.000 

 persons dependent on the forests for their living. 

 She will have 5.000,000 before the century ends. 

 She uses annually one thousand millions of feet of 



lumber, exclusive of railway ties, poles and the 

 like. The product of the United States forests in 

 the first state of manufacture is worth eleven hun- 

 dred millions of dollars. We use $10,000,000 worth 

 of wood annually for fuel in this state. In Xew 

 England, with soil similar to much of ours, of all 

 land cleared up in 1880 40 per cent had been aban- 

 doned to the forest before 1900. For the same 

 reasons this thing is going on in Michigan. Farm- 

 ers have found by experiment that timber is the 

 only profitable crop that can be grown there. 



"There are nearly 4,000.000 acres of unim- 

 proved lands in the settled portion of lower Mich- 

 igan. Of the northern peninsula only 5 per cent is 

 cultivated. Twenty million acres of the state are 

 woods or waste lands. When it is realized that 

 lumber is being brought into the state now from 

 the Pacific coast at a cost for freight per car of 

 $350, and that supplies are also brought from the 

 south, the importance of utilizing the waste lands 

 is evident. 



"When farmers sell a farm in Michigan they 

 throw in the wood lot the most valuable part of 

 the farm. The state has not properly protected 

 the lumbermen in either life or property in the 

 forests. I see no way to stop their slaughter of 

 the forests they own, but the state can do much 

 on its own lands. 



"Michigan now owns outright from 600,000 to 

 1,000,000 acres of waste land. It is practically 

 owner of all delinquent tax lands, which consti- 

 tute about one-quarter of the state area. Most 

 of the delinquent tax lands, under the wretched 

 system now in force, are sold from five to six 

 times in a quarter century. The wood is cut off, 

 the taxes lapse again, and the state is the poorer by 

 the process. 



OUR METHODS INEFFECTIVE. 



"In the ten years ending in 1905 the state spent 

 $1,500.000 trying to get rid of these waste lands, 

 is the auditor general's report shows. In one 

 year the state paid out $65.000 for useless ad- 

 vertisements. Land irmv now be bought for ten 

 an acre. Divided ten lots to the acre it is 

 sold to citv buvers. who. when they find out its 

 character. let their rights lapse. These lots must 



' then be advertised year after year. Each ad- 

 vertisement costs the state forty cents. Clerk 



I hire for looking after each lot costs eighty cents. 



i In other words the state pays out year after year. 



i in many cases. $1.20 for looking after what is 



I from one to eleven cents' worth of land. Such is 

 the working of the present land law. 



"A state forest reserve of ten million acres 

 fould be formed with advantage to every citizen. 

 It would in time give employment to hundreds of 

 small sawmills. Had this been done twenty-five 

 years ago we would now be getting a handsome 

 revenue from what is now useless and a great 

 expense. The state forest of Ontario is now pay- 

 ing all the province's expenses. Inside of fifteen 

 years a forest reserve can be made self-support- 

 ing. Inside of twenty-five years it is profitable. 



"The state land laws shoujd at once be amend- 

 ed to prevent the sale of any state lands at less 

 than a designated price per acre. At present 

 they may be sold by state officials at any price. 

 The state should be required to make a survey 

 of the material on the land before this price is 

 fixed. At present the state never knows w'int 

 it sells. Reform of the state land laws i 

 peratively necessary. Let us work for corrective 

 legislation at the state capital this winter." 



Michigan's Man-Made Deserts. 



Carl E. Schmidt spoke as follows : 

 "Some 25 to 30 years ago, when a young man. 

 I traveled through the State of Michigan buying 

 uo raw- furs. This business took me from one end 

 of the state to the other, and where railroads were 

 not available, stage coaches, boats and private 

 rigs had to be used. In those days I made the 

 trip from Saginaw to old Mackinac, and it was 

 possible to practically travel every mile of the 

 distance in the shade. Five years ago I took a 

 trii to the far west, and spent some days on the 

 deserts of North America. My first impressions 

 of the desert lands were that they were the most 

 monotonous, the most hideous and repellant thing 

 that could be found, but after a few days I found 



that even its plant life was interesting, and its 

 animal life, though hideous, still fascinating, and 

 I could understand why some of the desert riders 



' loved their stretches of land with the same 

 warmth that the sailor loves his blue ocean. 



Later my travels took me through Michigan 

 again, practically over the same ground that I 

 had passed 25 or 30 years before, and my heart 

 was filled with sorrow at the view presented. Xo 

 desert, no matter how forlorn, can equal in mel- 

 ancholy the man-made deserts of Michigan, and 

 at that time the thought occurred to me if it 

 would not be possible to give back to our state 

 our grand forests that had once clothed it with 

 its verdure. A closer investigation of the subject 

 brought me to realize that there were three im- 

 portant steps to be taken to make this possible. 

 First, to prevent our state from selling its lands, 



| and by this I mean such lands as are not suited 

 for agricultural purposes, at a minimum price of 

 let us say. $5 per acre. Arizona, Wyoming and 

 other western states, now have a minimum price 

 of $10 per acre on their lands, whereas ours are 



, advertised in magazines, etc., and offered at 

 prices ranging from 75 cents to $2.50 per acre. 

 With this minimum price for the ground, the 

 value of whatever timber remains on it to be 

 estimated and added to this price, would at least 

 keep some of these lands in the hands of the state, 

 or if they were sold an equitable price would be 

 received. The State of Michigan is now spending 

 for advertising and .clerk hire approximately 

 $165.000 aer -tear, and this expenditure results in 

 a sale of an average of $60.000 worth of lands. 

 Xow I would propose that the money thus spent 

 be utilized in reforestizing such lands in our state 

 as are unsuited for agricultural purposes. In 

 addition to this, the state should pass an equitable 

 tax bill : as it is at present, the trees on the land 

 are counted as real estate and this feature of our 

 tax bill makes it prohibitive for rrivate persons 

 to reforest their lands. That reforestizing is 

 practical can best be seen by referring to the 

 older European countries. Frederick the Great 

 introduced the system in Germany, and thi- 

 tem is practically the one in operation today. 

 While this is not the place to enter into a de- 

 tailed description of thetjBodus operandi. the re- 

 sults will probably strike you forcibly. The 

 Kinedom of Wurtemberg consists of about prac- 

 tically all of our Michigan so-called plains. Of 

 these lands, 485,000 acres have been reforestired. 

 The profits upon these 485,000 acres have been 

 in the last year $2,450 000. Xow when you con- 

 sider that Michigan has about six million acres 

 which could be utilized in the same manner by a 

 very simple process of multiplication you will find 

 that an income of $25,000,000, or even $30,000,000, 

 is not beyond reason. 



Forestry Meeting. 



To the members of the Michigan Forestry As- 

 sociation and citizens interested in forestry : The 

 first annual meeting of the Michigan Forestry As- 

 : sociation is apoointed to be held in the audi- 

 torium of the Grand Rapids Board of Trade, in 

 the city of Grand Rapids, Mich., Tuesday and 

 Wednesday. November 27 and 28. 1906. Sessions 

 ! will be held on Tuesday at 10 a. m.. 2 p. m. and 

 at 8 p. m. : and on Wednesday at 9 a. m. Public 

 addresses by our best authorities will be given 

 at these sessions on different aspects of the Mich- 

 igan Forestry Problem. 



You are cordially invited to attend the meet- 

 ings and encourage, by your presence, the move- 

 ; ment for the adoption by this State of an intelli- 

 | gent and comprehensive state policy in forestry. 



The regular business meeting of the associa- 

 tion will be held on Wednesday morning, at which 

 time formal action will be taken upon the recom- 

 mendations of the standing committees of the 

 i association, and the election of officers for the 

 ensuing year. 



Come, and bring one or more friends we need 

 your help ! 



Send your name immediately to Mr. John Ihl- 

 i der, of Grand Rapids, so that he can make the 

 necessary arrangements for your stay. 



HEXRV G. STEVENS, 



JOHX H. BISSELL, Secretary. 



President. 



