THE STATE REVIEW. 



merely reads, thinks whole counties up north 

 to be wasteland; the ardent newspaper man 

 who is anxious to put his statement in a strik- 

 ing form, is apt to exaggerate now and then. 

 The interested land dealer, on the other 

 hand, the man who does not farm tin- land, 

 hut who buys lands from the state at 50 cents 

 and divides them up into lots, resort lots or 

 others, and gets twenty times what he pays 

 for the land, he naturally enough is convinced 

 that this is all plowland, a regular paradise, 

 and he resents not only any discussion of the 

 subject, but feels it his duty to dictate to the 

 state what it shall do with its lands. 



The truth is usually along the middle line. 

 and so in this case. In Washtenaw county the 

 good sense of the farmer has left about :i."> 

 per cent of all land, in wood lots. In addition, 

 there are thousands of acres which the farmer 

 cleared years ago and now farms really at a 

 loss. What is true of Washtenaw holds for 

 most of southern Michigan, and it is probably 

 a conservative estimate to say that 25 per cent 

 of the southern half of our state, an area, then, 

 of over 4,000,01)0 acres, is largely woods now, 

 and ought to remain woods for all time. 



The Northern Half. 



As regards the northern half of our state, 

 three points should he kept clearly in mind in 

 this discussion. 



1. There is no thought of discrediting or 

 "running down" any county or community; it 

 is clear to any one that in each county there- 

 are, as in Washtenaw, good lands and pool- 

 lands. 



2. The friends of forestry are not con- 

 cerned at present in the waste body of pri- 

 vate lands, the greater part of every county, 

 and lands, which iir all probability make up 

 the better part of each county. 



IS. What we are interested in, in this mat- 

 ter of forestry, are the state lands and the 

 tax lands, the lands which have reverted to 

 the state, over and over again, simply be- 

 cause people did not think, enough of them' to 

 pay their tax. It is that body of land which, 

 as much as :tO years ago, amounted to about 

 9,000,000 acres, and fluctuatingly stayed with 

 the state all these many yea-s, so that as late 

 as 1897 they still amounted to 8,970,000, or 

 practically half of all the north county lands. 

 Whether these lands are good or bad, it seems 

 a useless enterprise to continue the past and 

 present policy of the state, namely of spending 

 the money of the state to try to force them 

 on the market at any price, spending millions 

 in doing so, when by keeping them and spend- 

 ing a little money in their protection we might 

 produce a forest and soon make these lands 

 not only self-supporting, but productive. At 

 present they are bought, denuded, burned and 

 turned back to the state, and the result you 

 all know. 'Tis the howling wilderness of man 

 made desert. 



As regards the character of these l-'nds, 

 there is always one criterion which appeals to 

 me more than all other claims put together. 

 It is the verdict of the American farmer, the 

 man who understands agriculture as his busi- 

 ness, the man who has known these lands for 

 ntury, the man to whom these lands were 

 offered by the state at any price, who could 

 them as early as issl at price's as low as 

 one cent per 40 acres. The American farmer 

 has rendered his verdict; he has refused 

 them, even as a gift; l .)~> per cent of these 

 lands are unsettled and untilled; they arc of 

 no good to town, county or state, and are even 

 a menace to the owner of lands situated among 

 them. These are the lands and their character. 



Ownership of the Lands. 



As regards the ownership of the lands in 

 Michigan, it is evident to any one, who is 

 willing to read the history of other people, 

 that today the state has a better chance to 

 foster forestry than it will have in time to 

 come. Once colonized, even your jack pine 

 plains will present difficulties which an agri- 

 cultural state, a conservative state, will not 

 readily care to undertake. Today and for 



years the state has really owned these lands; 

 all it needs to do is to hold them and protect 

 them, and in addition save the useless expen- 

 diture of millions of dollars. 



A* regards our second poiiit, little need be 

 said. The facts are so patent to us all. and 

 every time we need a piece ol lumber we have 

 our memory jogged on this point. Our lum- 

 ber yards are full of stuff which we ought to 

 raise and have to sell, while today this mate- 

 rial is shipped thousands of miles and Un- 

 people of .Michigan are wasting hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars eveiy year on freight 

 rates alone. The lumber and timber famine in 

 Michigan has begun and is here to stay; the 

 farmer and townsman are hampered in their 

 building, by extortionate prices which are go- 

 ing higher every day. The development of 

 our state is beginning to feel the effects of 

 our wastefulness. 



As regards the sentiment of the people, it is 

 :i fact, and a most valuable part of our great 

 opportunity. We are your people, drive out 

 your woodsman and your woodworker, as we 

 have done during the past 15 years, teach the 

 people to live in tenement or hovel, and the 

 time will come when the people will settle 

 down to a do nothing policy, just as all peo- 

 ple get used to the so-called inevitable. 



Our opportunity is before us, we may choose 

 .in easy victory which will mean millions of 

 dollars in money every year. The right use 

 of all of our land, our second greatest indus- 

 try assured, the people of our state protected 

 against an extortionate tribute levied in form 

 of timber import. Yes-, it will mean far more, 

 it will do much to assure to us a good si. 

 beautiful state, peopled by good, progr 

 men and women. Let us choose wisely, that 

 we may earn the thanks, and not the censure, 

 of the 5,000,00!) people who will be in our state 

 before the end of this century. 



DISCUSSIONS OF FORESTRY. 



EX-MAYOR SWEET, LAND COMMISSIONER 

 ROSE AND MR. LORD JOIN IN THEM. 



Edwin F. Sweet, former mayor of Grand 

 Rapids, was called on for a word and he spoke 

 in part as follows: 



"I have interests in the southern part of 

 North Dakota, the James river valley region, 

 which is a rolling surface, alluvial with clay 

 sub-soil. This was a part of a vast treeless 

 section and when the timber-culture act was 

 passed by the government many people took 

 advantage of it and planted here -box elder 

 and cottonwood principally, for these varie- 

 ties, though worthless, were most likely to 

 live. These tree claims were failures, due 

 principally to these three causes prairie tires. 

 drouth aud neglect. The people have made 

 no effort to protect the trees or to keep them 

 growing, yet trees will grow there. 1 have 

 white elms :!0 years old that are 30 feet in 

 height, green ash of the same age that are :>5 

 to 30 feet high, cedars and other varieties. 

 People there are beginning to realize that they 

 have missed a great opportunity in not caring 

 for their trees. Timber protects crops and 

 orchards from hot winds in summer and from 

 cold winds in winter. Artesian wells are help- 

 ing the growth of trees in that section, and 

 many farmers are putting them down. An 

 inch well driven to a depth of 1,050 feet costs 



"Our own city has been put in jeopardy 

 through the elision of the- forests in its basin, 

 and there is not a person here today who has 

 not been affected financially by the destruc- 

 tion of the woods." 



The Land Commissioner. 



Wm. H. Rose, state land commissioner, was 

 next called to the platform and the lively dis- 

 cussion that followed, in which Mr. Rose, Prof. 

 Roth and Mr. Loud were the leading figures, 

 was the feature of the convention and was 

 productive of good. 



"Two great questions are confronting Un- 

 people of Michigan," said Mr. Rose, with a 



smile, as he glanced at Mr. Mill reforesta- 

 tion, and \\ho uill be the next United States 

 senator." Hut the speaker did not continue 

 long in a jocular mood. lie took up the cud- 

 gels a; once and swung them vigorously for 

 an awakening of the people. 



"I'rof. Roll) tells us that the people are 

 aroused, but there are some vacant seals here, 

 and there should not be. It is a question 

 whether the people of the state are as inter- 

 ested in this subject as they should be. Re- 

 forestation so far has been nearly a failure. I 

 had hoped to hear discussion of change.-, in 

 statutes, if they need changing, and to learn 

 that you were doing things at this meeting. 

 There are too many generalities, and they 

 have all hi. en gone over lime and again. 



"Why not do something? The present lire 

 law is no good, and there are proofs of it al- 

 most every day. A number of people from tin- 

 north were in my office last evening, men who 

 had spent $(i()0 in lighting fires, but in no case 

 could I remunerate them in excess of $5!), the 

 limit fixed by law. There is no lire law op- 

 erative at all south of the south line of Ko- 

 common county. 1 think that the law should 

 be extended to include the entire state. As 

 to the taxation question. [ think that it should 

 be handled' carefully. The state land depart- 

 ment has been censured for the laws as they 

 now exist. Xow, as to new laws, amendments 

 and the best policy to pursue. what is your 

 iudgment in the matter? 1 want to have the 

 opinion of representative men." 



I'rof. Roth "I was in the office of Mr. Wil- 

 dey. your predecessor, in 1 (>:>:;. inquiring ; 

 certain descriptions, and he said to me, '[ 

 nothing of these northern lands.' Then 

 it into the northern country and they 

 up there, 'these lands are appraised by 

 'nen v. - ''rough the country in top bug- 

 gies and who don't know a thing about them.' " 



Mr. Rose "As to what my predecessors 

 may have knov. ,1. Of of their melh;>d>, 1 can 

 say nothing, but I can give \ou detailed state- 

 ments regarding the state's holdings." 



I'rof. Roth "1 have the highest regard for 

 Mr. Rose, and have the same high opinion of 

 Mr. Wildcy, but the fact still remains that tin- 

 state land office was without these records up 



I to ii)i):t." 



Mr. Rose "I have these records, and they 

 have been secured at considerable expense by 

 the sending out of competent men to examine 

 these lands." 



Prof. Roth "The states of Wyoming and 

 Montana do not have real good farming lands 

 except through irrigation, and in Washington 

 one side is Hooded while the other is arid, yet 

 these three states have set $10 as a minimum 

 price on their state lands. There was a hue 

 and cry over the matter at first, but this has 

 long since ceased and the wisdom of the law 

 is now recognized. If this is true in an arid 

 country, is it fair for Michigan to sell her 

 lands for a sop 



Mr. Rose "Would you place a minimum 

 price of $5 on Michigan's lands, and then 

 would you permit grazing on them:" 



Prof. Roth "If the state were unable to re- 

 forest them, 1 should say graze them until 

 .-.uch time as it can do so." 



Mr. Rose "The grazing proposition seems 

 to me directly opposed to reforesting." 



Prof. Roth - "1 stand squarely on the plat- 

 form with President Roosevelt and the 

 eminent for the use, and the best use. of tin- 

 land for the people." 



Mr. Rose "To establish a minimum price ol 

 $5 would exclude the sale of these lands. Then 

 the homestead law would come in. This con- 

 dition exists the northern people say their 

 lands are good; they want neighbors, and 

 you can scarcely blame them. 1 have adopted 

 this policy; When a man wants a homestead 

 1 look it up, and if located in the sand plains, 

 I tell him that it's not good enough for him. 

 How do you stand on the homestead privilege, 

 Prof. Roth?" 



Prof. Roth "The homestead act was all 

 right for Washtenaw county, but it's a poor 

 device on our barren plains. The act was good 



