10 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



Michigan Forestry Association. 



The Michigan Forestry Association was organized in Grand Rapids August 30, 1905, having for its object the promotion of a rational system ol 

 forestry in Michigan. The society is managed by the following roster of officers : President, John H. Bissell, of Detroit, Vice-President, C. S. Udell, 

 Grand Rapids; Secretary, Henry G. Stevens, Detroit; Treasurer, J. J. Hubbell, Manistee. Board of Directors, Mrs. Francis King, Alma; L. L. Hub- 

 bard, Houghton; S. M. Lemon, Grand Rapids; H. N. Loud, Au Sable; Thos. B. Wyman, Munising; Mrs. J. C. Sharp, Jackson; C. D. Lawton, Lawton. 



The State Forestry Commission Charles W. Garfield, Grand Rapids ; Hon. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw ; William H. Rose, Lansing. 



MICHIGAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 

 CONVENTION WILL BE HELD AT SAG- 

 INAW TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY, 

 NOV. 12 AND 13. 



LUMBERMAN'S VIEW 



OF REFORESTATION 



Editor Michigan Roads and Forests: 



It is a mistaken idea that lumbermen are 

 simply looking toward deforesting the land, 

 or that they simply buy land for the timber 

 there is on it. While I admit that there is 

 a lumberman now and then who looks only 

 to present money getting, the majority^ of 

 them look ahead far enough to get a continu- 

 ous supply of timber, and I am sure if the 

 different timber, states and our national gov- 

 ernment would give some encouragement to 

 these lumbermen in the way of relief from 

 taxation of deforested lands, nine per cent of 

 the lumbermen and lumber companies would 

 reforest their land, and would be glad to 

 do so. 



Who can blame the lumbermen and lum- 

 ber companies of today for not reforesting 

 their cut-over land? The lumberman is first 

 and last a business man, who looks toward 

 a legitimate return on capital invested. It 

 does not take him long to figure out that 

 under the present system of taxation of forest 

 land he could never hold the reforested land 

 until the crops were half ripe. He can clearly 

 see that the taxes would eat up his land 

 and the capital invested in it. 



At present I know of several states like 

 the state of Maine, in which a small increase 

 of .land tax is causing such a quick deforesta- 

 tion as to influence the market price of all 

 lumber. This, as can be plainly seen, will 

 continue until all timber is cut. Then the 

 price of timber will naturally jump up to 

 prohibitive prices. The land, if not fit for 

 agriculture, will return to the states for taxes, 

 and the states will have to nearly double the 

 taxes on land remaining, having killed the 

 goose that laid the golden egg. 



Take the state of Michigan today. Where 

 have the millions of dollars gone that have 

 been made from lumber from the once beau- 

 tiful white and red pine forests? Have they 

 remained in the state? Not one-half, of it 

 has remained. And, again, where are the com- 

 panies and the men that once operated the 

 mills in Michigan? Gone are they to new 

 fields to conquer. Gone are they, and their 

 wealth with them. Today many of them, who 

 still lumber the hardwoods remaining, speak 

 of going to Washington and British Colum- 

 bia, where virgin forests still stand. If they 

 go, their wealth goes with them. What would 

 have induced the others to stay? What would 

 cause those here to remain? A different law 

 as to taxing forest land and forest products. 

 If we could only learn forest methods from 

 European states, things would be different. 



I always contended, and still stand for a 

 tax on logs, or cut timber only. It being 

 the product of the soil, accumulated through 

 generations, it is in this respect different from 

 all other products of the soil. All land pro- 

 ducing forests or planted to forests should 

 never come into the schedule of agricultural 

 land. 



The tax on logs or forest products should 

 be a state tax, and used as such. The forests 

 of a state should be looked upon as a bless- 



ing to the whole community, and its destruc- 

 tion as a curse to all. Why, then, have a 

 tax as at present, that drives men to cutting 

 all the forest they own as quick as possible 

 in order to escapi- the ruinous taxation exist- 

 ing at present. 



What use to talk to a lumberman or lum- 

 ber company about reforestation, about start- 

 ing nurseries or employing a competent for- 

 ester to look after his land? What use have 

 they for a working plan for selection cutting? 

 Do you wonder that today they make a clean 

 cut and then go to new fields? It is because 

 they are driven to it. 



Time and time again I have heard it said 

 that it is the present laws of taxation that 

 have destroyed our forests so quickly, and 

 that the only party to look forward to for 

 reforestation is the government, which is ex- 

 empt from taxation. These are the views of 

 a lumberman on the question of reforestation 

 and taxation of forest land. 



C. H. GOETZ, 



Forester for H. M. Loud 



& Son's Lumber Co., Au 



Sable, Mich. 



INSECTS DESTROYING TREES. 



Prof. R. H. Pettit, of the Michigan Agri- 

 cultural College, has returned from a trip to 

 the upper peninsula, where he has been gath- 

 ering and studying destructive insects that 

 ar raising havoc in the northern timber tracts. 



Appeals from owners of valuable timber 

 tracts have been made, not only to the ento- 

 mological department at the Michigan Agri- 

 cultural College, but to the same department 

 in Washington, D. C., foi some successful 

 method to cope with the inroads these insects 

 are making on standing green timber. Hem- 

 lock and tamarack trees are suffering the 

 worst. 



The two pests which are doing the most 

 damage are bugs that feed on the foliage 

 of the trees and a specie of beetle that works 

 in under the bark. Woodpeckers eat these 

 beetles voraciously when they can get at them, 

 but generally the beetle works so far into the 

 wood that they are entirely safe from the 

 bird. 



It "takes about three years for these forest 

 enemies to completely peel a tree and deprive 

 it of its bark, and as they propogate fast 

 their inroads are viewed with alarm by all 

 lumbermen, and it is hoped to discover some 

 means to exterminate the pests, especially for 

 the sake of the young trees. 



Birch trees for pulp wood, and the black 

 birch much ba used in veneer work, are also 

 threatened by a beetle which works beneath 

 the bark, where it burrows holes and deposits 

 its eggs. 



PROF. E. E. BOGUE. 



Michigan forestration interests lost a good 

 friend in the passing of Ernest E. Bogue, pro- 

 fessor of forestry, Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege, who died last month after an operation 

 for appendicitis. Prof. Bogne had been a mem- 

 ber of the faculty of Michigan Agricultural 

 College for five years. He had been profes- 

 sor of botany and forestry in the University 

 of Oklahoma. He was the first professor of 

 forestry in the Michigan school, and he made 

 a great success of it. Regarded as an au- 

 thority on forestry, he greatly broadened the 

 scope of college work, and was highly 

 esteemed by the students and faculty. Born 

 in Ohio forty-two years ago, Professor Bogue 

 graduated from the University of Ohio with 

 the degree of M. A. about fifteen years ago, 



and went immediately to Oklahoma. 



In scientific matters generally Professor 

 Bogue took a deep interest. He was secre- 

 tary of the Michigan Academy of Science. 

 When the city of East Lansing was formed, 

 Professor Bogue was chosen an alderman, and 

 he evinced great zeal and intelligence in start- 

 ing up the municipal government. 



FIRE WARDENS NEEDED. 



The great need of more forest fire wardens 

 has again been forcibly illustrated by the great 

 amount of damage done in the upper penin- 

 sula the past season by forest fires. Nearly 

 every county has suffered to a greater or less 

 extent, and the losses have been very heavy. 

 Practically every one of the fires could have 

 been checked before it gained headway had 

 there been sufficient fire wardens to police 

 the forests. Berry pickers were responsible 

 for many of the fires. 



LOCUST TREES CHECK SAND BLOWS. 



At Pier Cove, Allegan county, on Lake 

 Michigan, O. C. Simonds, of Chicago, for 

 years has pursued his studies and experiments 

 in forestry on a quiet scale, and has secured 

 results which are decidedly interesting. It 

 was a famous lumber camp in its time. Sena- 

 tor Stockbridge having operated a mill there 

 which still stands. 



In his work as landscape engineer it has 

 been the custom of Mr. Simonds to watch 

 closely the natural growth of shrubbery and 

 plants. When he first secured the tract some 

 fifteen years ago, he planted pines, and he 

 now has upon the place a number of these 

 trees, which range from eight to ten inches 

 in diameter. One of his favorite contentions 

 has been that it was a simple matter to stop 

 sand blows, which are so disastrous to land, 

 and which have put so many acres along the 

 lake shore out of commission in the past. 

 Mr. Simonds gives a practical illustration of 

 his theory at Pier Cove. His method is to 

 plant locusts as soon as the sand blows show 

 an inclination to visit any portion of his hold- 

 ing. These trees grow quickly, and are war- 

 ranted to stop any sand blow that ever raised 

 its head in these parts. 



RUTHLESS DESTRUCTION. 



The big elm at Wall and Larch streets, 

 Lansing one of the landmarks in the north- 

 end of that city, has been rooted out and 

 felled to the ground. The old elm, three 

 feet in diameter, was one of the original of 

 the primeval forest which years ago covered 

 the land in Lansing, and its magnificent beauty 

 has attracted every one who passed under its 

 cool shade. Its great trunk, which was as 

 straight as an arrow, was without limbs for 

 a height of forty feet. 



To old residents in the north end the de- 

 struction of the grand old tree seems ruth- 

 less, but the aldermen contended that the 

 advances of a growing city demanded its dis- 

 placement, as it interfered with the building 

 of stone walk. 



NEW NATIONAL FOREST. 



A proclamation has been signed by Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt creating the new Tongass Na- 

 tional Forest in southeastern Alaska. The 

 mainland and islands included in this forest 

 have an approximate area of 2,006,000 acres, 

 most of which is in an exceedingly rough 

 country. The forest was created on the rec- 

 ommendation of Chief Inspector Olmstead and 

 Supervisor Langille, and was indorsed by Gov- 

 ernor Hoggatt of Alaska. 



