THE STATE REVI1\V. 



in its day. but it is ancient, and the land office 

 at Washington has drifted 75 years behind the 

 times." 



Mr. Rose "The people are demanding 

 home-leads nil every kind of land." 



Prof. Roth "It has been my experience in 

 the -trite ri serve region that tile homesteaders 

 are in it li inking for homes, but fur cedar." 



Mr. Rose "That's frequently so. My plan 

 of refusing to sell worthless .tracts to appli- 

 cant- for homestead.- has made enemie- for 

 me." 



11. X. Loud "It is the policy of our com- 

 pany, in the Au Sable district, to sell good 

 farming land.- at $10 per acre, none being sold 

 for less than $.">. Agricultural lands for graz- 

 re nut -old for less than $2 per 

 acre in any case. In driving through portions 

 of Roscomnion and Crawford counties you 

 will pa-- by mile-- and miles of deserted home- 

 steads, where unit v. omen and children have 

 made wreck- of their live-. 1 have seen them 

 c-old, starved ami hungry, the most pitiable ob- 

 on earth, in their struggle to -oinchow 

 wrench a living from the barren -and-." 



Kdward Stein "The lands should be cla--i- 

 fied. This i- a vital question and should be 

 settled rig!, i and al once." 



Dr. Heal-- "Mr. Rose, would you change the 

 lion iw?" 



Mr. Rose -"] would. Xo man should be al- 

 lowed to home-lead more than Mi acri 

 community is better off with men on 

 eiglity, and this would mean better road-. 



Mr. \Yyman "In the upper peninsula the 

 Fter timber tracts in alnnst 



cver\ on the land i- not 



coiitimiou ,1 the huntii; 



there, and al the expiration of live years 

 he .-ell- his title to a lumber company." 



Mr. Ro-e "That is true of the lower penin- 

 sula, 



Mr. \Vymau "The lu\v should be more 

 stringent. \\'e have Finns on our hinds, and 

 we rc.-tricl them." 



Mr. Loud "I favor tin- entin uncut 



of the homestead law. 1 am familiar wii 

 cxKii.-ivi territory along the An Sable river, 

 and I don't know of one legitimate home- 

 steader in losco or Osceola county. The only 

 land- the state has at all are those that the 

 lumbermen have thrown away, and that no- 

 body ha- been \\ilHng to buy for the past .">o 

 year-. I hav< oo many poor men pau- 



perixed to believe in the homestead law." 



Mr. Ro.-e "I would not oppose the killing 

 of the la\\ " 



Prof. Roth "What about the lire law? What 

 are its weak point-? There'- not much use 

 ,g a step tart her until we can light lire." 



Mr. Ro-e "1 have a copy of the present law 

 here, and let u- run through it." 



Prof. Koih "This law really tempts super- 

 vi-or- to -tart lire- in dull times, tor there is 

 ?.">() in it for them no more. This official has 

 itch out pretty closely when he .u 



limit." 



Mr. Loud "The state lire warden has 

 the princely -um during the year in 



<:ting the in; f proper! v owners. 



Just think of it. in cnnneciion with the amount 

 of money that the lumbermen are paying the 

 state in 



Mr. RotiWMr." Carl Schmidt, of Detroit. 

 (1 to furni-h a man without expense to 

 the state to a--i-t in pn -\enting tire-, but this 

 tire law forbade any such thing." 



Mr. Rose "The lam!- located 



within -Id miles of Lan-ing that have been on 

 For the past three months. 1 don't know 

 but the muck is burning yet. 



A change in the law- relating to the pi 

 of titles should be handled very carefully. I 

 am not in favor of the state taxing its own 

 land-." 



Prof. Roth "I like Mr. Rose for his frank- 

 ness. Pennsylvania pay- a flat rate on its 

 lands, and it seems to me that if Michigan is 

 part owner of the townships that it should 

 bear part of the burden of support." 



Mr. Loud "In Oscoda county the state and 



the United State- own practically all the land. 

 There are :!'> voters in HI square mil, 

 territory, owning property in the aggr 

 that I doubt not may be liouuht for >':o.().n. 

 Why should this handful of people have the 

 care and -.vorry of looking after practically 

 that entire territory?" 



Mr. Rose "My train leaves in a few min- 

 utes and I shall have to go. I hope that this 

 convention will arrive at some definite con- 

 clusions as to what you want. As to the 

 maintenance of a regular paid lire patrol, out- 

 side of the state reserve. 1 think that the ter- 

 ritory is too great and am afraid that you 

 cannot get legislation to provide for this.' 



Prof. Roth "I think that Michigan might 

 well adopt some of the Luropean methods." 



Mr. Rose "Are not the German laws more 

 arbitrary than here? And would not there be 

 .trouble in enforcing such laws?" 



Prof. Roth "The Americans are a patient 

 i people, and arc just as good people as exist 

 under the sun. They will fight tires and tight 

 them grati-." 



ing that I want to burn, and you have some 

 hemlock adjacent to it that may get afire, 

 it i- I can do nothing about it. We need laws 

 that will give proper lire and police prole- 

 in such c.i 



"The railroads of the country have mad 

 provi-ion for their tie timber. In earlier . 

 they used to specify live cedar, but that has 

 since u"iie by the board, and now dead 

 cedar- are dug out of swamp- for tie-. 



"1 want a broad system of agriculture taught 

 in the schools, not technical silviculture, but 

 the ability to know plants, grains and tree- It 



more difficult to learn how to plant 

 than cabbages." 



Committee meetings were held at the 

 of the afternoon -c--ion. 



MR. LOUD'S ADDRESS. 



"ONE OF THE BAD MEN, WHO HAVE BEEN 



CUTTING TREES," BECOMES 



REPENTANT. 



The addre-s of Henry X. Loud, of Au Sable. 



on forestry topics, with special reference to 



the Agricultural College lands, which was in- 



iiroughout, pointed and appropriate. 



concluded the afternoon program. Mr. Loud 



in part: 



i>are that tree.' but where 



would Grand Rapids be if that injunction were 



carried out? Nearly everything is made of 



and the city's prosperity has 



sprung from falling tr> 



"We've cut the trees, and the next thii. 

 to replace them. We are here to worship at 

 Mr. Garlield. who must be con- 

 sidered as the great, original crank in th 

 estry movement. lie's been talking forestry 

 ever since*! can remember. Blessed be cranks, 

 for they turn the wheels of progr 



"I'm one of the bad men. who have been 

 cutting trees, and am standing here before 

 you to ask, 'what i.- to be done?' 



"Mrs. King alluded to the Christmas tree i 

 slaughter. Let's have Christmas trees and 

 have them forever. Michigan ladies can tell 

 the people how to raise them. The farmer 

 who will turn over to his boys his poorest 

 land, to be planted to spruce-, will find it to 

 be the most profitable crop he can raise. 

 Spruce trees are selling on the ground up in 

 our country at 10 to :.'."> cent.- apiece. Set the 

 trees four feet apart and you can rai-e '.'.."iD i 

 to the acre. Spruces will grow anywhere in 

 M ichigan. 



"I am sorry not to see more young men 

 here. It is difficult to disabuse older men of 

 their settled notion that it is more profitable 

 to rai-e potatoes than ; 



A Great Forest Area. 



"I am showing you here a map of tl 



river, in the ,n of the state, 



which is a part of th 



Michigan. Of this area of iare miles. 



'inure miles lie within L'T miles of Au 

 Sable, and in :'."iO square miles of this territory 

 there is not a -ingle inhabitant. The Agricul- 

 tural College land- lie in a solid bloc 



. and are mo-t available foi Itation. 



"We propose to a-k the legislature for an 

 appropriation . his part of 



county, for the benelit of the Agricultu- 

 ral college and the State 3.S a whole, making a 

 great forest laboratory where young men may 

 be educated. There are no inhabitants here 

 ,ilier with. The area is covered with oak- 

 of two or three varieties, and all suitable for 

 tie timber. 



"As to the question of taxation of these 

 lands, I want to be taxed, for I want a voice 

 in the appointing of suitable wardens. The 

 other day a man said to me, 'I've got a slash- 



PROF. LANE'S ADDRESS. 



THE STATE GEOLOGIST DISCUSSES THE 

 QUESTION OF SOILS. 



Prof. A. C. Lane, of Lansing, state a 

 made the first address at the evenir,_ 

 the salient points in his remarks being a- 



"I am interested in this forestry question. 

 Certain soils in the state are better adapt' 

 forest culture than to anything else. I 

 agree with Prof. Roth that there is no 



r but that it is worth at least S"< an acre 

 to the state. Speaking of the timber famine 

 it is here already, and it is not an unmixed 

 evil, for the substitutes all have to come from 

 the ground. My impression i- that all our 



- at no far off date will be built of cement 

 or sand brick. It will not be Ion 



will co-t more than do these materials, and 

 then frame h" '1 .-pccdil. go out of 



fashion. 



"Have you any idea of the immense amount 

 of wood that is used in timbering the mines 

 of the upper peninsula? The Calumet & ilec- 



ple are putting timber under ground at 

 the rate of 33,000,000 feet yearly. ' When I 

 came to Michigan, about 17 years ago, they 

 were u.-ing cork pine in the mine-. 



that is almost extinct in the state now. The 

 mining companies have timber lands of their 

 own. which they are drawing on as sparingly 

 i- possible, and in the meantime are in the 

 market for all the timber they can get con- 

 veniently. Having wood of their own pre- 

 vents the other fellows from sticking them. 



Substitutes for Wood. 



"In the past year I have seen miles and 

 miles of stone wall in use in the mining dis- 

 tricts, and iron and steel substitutes for 

 are also creeping in. Pine from Arkansas and 

 ' tcilic coast is being imported by the up- 

 ninsula operators. 



"Ten ye -aid Prof. Lane in 



"I made a prediction that Detroit would bo 

 mining salt within <0 year-. Well. 1 have 

 missed, but 1 want to renew the prediction. 

 Detroit will certainly be a salt mining town 

 within the next decade, and her industrial de- 

 velopment will be materially hastened.'' 



Samuel Ranck. in charge of the Ry 

 public library of Grand Rapids. with 



an instructive talk along the line of "Boo 1 



i the 

 library distinctively devoted to forestry the 



\S of the , '. that the follow i: 



their order, have proved to ;,ular 



with patrons Xeweli's Trees of Xorth . 

 Practical v, Pine 



Primer of Forestry, and Sargent's Woo, 

 the Ui ates. 



Mr. Ranck called attention to the in 

 ance of writing readable books. He men 1 '- 

 an exhaustive work of several volumes that 

 had remained undisturbed on the shelve- up 

 to this time, not having he-en drawn once, and 

 this want of attention was attributed to heavi- 

 In this connection he spoke 



of Stewart Ldward White's Blazed Trail, of 

 which the library has seven copies, and each 



has been drawn over ."i tin 

 placed in circulation. 



