

MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



13 



FIRE OLD TREES 



WERE PRESERVED 



Shading the streets of old towns in the 

 east and south are many trees which owe 

 their existence to the interest and enthusiasm 

 of those who, in their love for forestry, have 

 reduced the art of tree preservation to a science. 

 These enthusiasts have earned a double bless- 

 ing; for not only have they helped to mark 

 historic events occurring near or under these 

 trees, but they have also increased the beauty 

 of the country in a way of which we are too 

 often neglectful. 



Modern conditions in cities make the grow- 

 ing of healthy trees in streets a more difficult 

 matter each year. Concrete sidewalks and 

 asphalted boulevards may be indicative of pro- 

 gress and conducive to speed, but they are 

 fatal to tree growing. A large number of 

 persons may be wholly indifferent, and some 

 may prefer speed and the motor car to shade 

 and a stately tree, but there are those who 

 deem it worth while to spend time and money 

 in adding to the years of one of the graceful 

 trees planted by their ancestors. 



It is naturally to be supposed that women, 

 born with an instinctive love for beauty, would 

 be foremost in a good work of this kind. It 

 was with something akin to disgust, there- 

 fore, that one lover of trees discovered the 

 indifference of some of her sex to the whole 

 subject. Indeed, the indifference in this in- 

 stance approached active opposition. The tree- 

 lover had journeyed to a town near her own 

 home to talk to the woman's club there of 

 some phases of the work of village improve- 

 ment. Her hostess, a prominent club member, 

 drove the visitor to her home, an old-fash- 

 ioned white frame, green-shuttered house, on 

 a street shaded by splendid horse-chestnuts, 

 then in luxuriant bloom. Everything about 

 the place was eloquent of a housekeeping that 

 was thorough-going, but only a chance remark 

 of the speaker for the afternoon revealed the 

 fact that her hostess was "pizen neat." 



"What wonderful horse-chestnuts those are. 

 They look like big Christmas trees with wax 

 tapers. How fortunate you are to have them." 



Unappreciated Horse-Chestnut. 



"Fortunate!" answered the lady of the 

 house. ''Well, I don't agree. I'm sure I can't 

 see why my grandfather ever brought them 

 here. He planted these first. and now the 

 town is full of them. I think I'll have them 

 cut down next sprinnr and some Carolina pop- 

 lars planted instead." 



"Cut down!" gasped the horrified listener. 

 "Cut down the trees that your grandfather 

 planted nearly a hundred vears ago. and such 

 beautiful trees, too! What do you mean:" 



"\\ell, I guess if you had to contend with 

 the falling blossoms in the snrin?. and the 

 nuts and boys pelting the tree= in the autumn. 

 you'd know what I mean. Th^n. the leaves 

 drop early, and. taking everything together: 

 I can't keep a clean sidewalk more than half 

 the time." 



The one who heard said nothing more. 

 What was there to say in the face of snrh 

 invincible logic? But that afternoon, in the 

 open meeting of the club. =he did say things, 

 things so to the point th.it in less than a 

 year the town had vqted to place the care 

 of all trees in the hands of a specially ap- 

 pointed committee. .At last accounts the 

 plumed horse-chestnuts still waved reeally in 

 the spring, while the villasre bovs gathered 

 their yearly harvest of s->tin-smooth. red- 

 brown nuts, but the excellent housekeeper 

 and the club visitor are no longer on speak- 

 ing terms. 



FORESTRY CONVENTION. 



The directors of the Michigan Forestry As- 

 sociation have decided the date of the next 

 annual convention. At the earnest solicitation 

 of Hon. W. B. Mershon the convention will be 



held at Saginaw, Tuesday and Wednesday, would require the services of two men four 

 N'ov. 12 and 13. The Michigan Forestry com- days. Then it would have to go through the 

 mission will also hold its meeting in Saginaw [ process of grinding and leaching which would 

 on the same dates and it is the purpose' to : take another week to bring it to the condition 

 invite the forestry commissions of Minnesota where it would be useful for the actual pur- 

 and Wisconsin and of the Province of Ontario poses of tanning. The extract as we get it is 

 ta meet at this time for mutual conference, i ready for immediate use and thus all of the 

 Also the new Commission of Inquiry, recently time difference between the unloading the 

 ippointed by the governor, consisting of twelve j bark and the extract together with the grind- 

 members, will be invited to be present and un- i ing and leaching process is so much gain to 



doubtedly will. 



The program for the Forestry Association 



the tanner. 



"It is quite safe to say that the use of extract 

 has come to stay and that the more it is used 



meeting has not yet been prepared, but it 



vill be the most interesting session yet held. ; the more it appeals to the tanner." 

 There will be some splendid addresses on for- 

 estry subjects, and it is proposed to have some 

 pertinent discussions of forestry conditions in 

 Michigan. The farm woodlot wijl come in 

 for a generous share of the discussion. 



Among the topics to be discussed will be 



LOG LIFTING ON MANISTIQUE. 



Hugh Shay, a lumberman of Germfask, 

 Mich., is preparing to embark in the sub-ma- 

 rine logging business. He has purchased a 



."iniuiit; me IULJILS nj uc uiscusscu win uc , i j t -1 j 



Modern Economics in Lumbering," What ' hoist-ng plant and a marine boiler and eng.ne, 

 Forestry Can Do for Woodworking Indus . i and is installmg machinery aboard a scow pre- 

 tries," and "Insect Depredations." i hmlnar y 1 9 us ' n S ,^ equipment in the work 



J_ of recovering deadhead timber in the Mams- 



tique river. Many millions of feet of logs 



ESTABLISHING FOREST RESERVES. have been floated down the stream during the 

 In these days when the axe is laid close to i many years lumbering operations have been 

 >he base of the tree it is somewhat refreshing I conducted on the Manistique and its tributa- 

 to learn of the attempt which is being made by "es, and as is always the case in driving tim- 

 some prominent capitalists to establish a for- | ber a considerable quantity of the pine never 

 st reserve within a very short distance of reached its destination, having become water- 

 Gaylord. For a considerable time there has : logged and sunk. It is these logs that Mr. 

 heen an effort on the part of one of the large Shaw will now go after. It has been demon- 

 Saginaw concerns to establish a reserve along \ strated in similar operations on the Menomi- 

 he Ausable river. This concern, Mershon & ' nee river in the upper peninsula and on the 

 Company, of Saginaw, has during the last Muskegon and other rivers in lower Michigan, 

 vear purchased a large tract of land compris- that the logs do not deteriorate in quality be- 

 ing several hundred acres which it has decided cause they may have been immersed for years, 

 to convert into a preserve and they contem- and that when taken out and permitted to dry 

 plate in a very near future erecting a large for a season, they make a very fine grade of 

 club house and other appropriate buildings to j lumber. White pine, scarce article in these 

 nnke the preserve as complete as possible, days of decadent forest resources, is much 

 The property is one of the very best sections more valuable than at the time the bulk of 

 of the valley. this class of timber was cut in the Manistique 



Another important transaction in the same 'valley, and it is expected the Germfask lum- 

 locality was that of the purchase some months berman will realize handsomely on his ven- 



ago by Boutelle & Co.. of Saginaw. of the 

 property from the ranch of Dam Four, in- 

 cluding all except the Douglas property. This 



ture. It is said that in certain portions of the 

 river, particularly where in the course of the 

 on flowing water bends have formed, the 



purchase is in some respects the more impor- i bed of the stream is literally paved with 

 tant of the two as the purchasers contem- sunken logs of the finest quality. With an 

 ilate extensive improvements which will make ; equipment especially devised for the work, it 

 't one of the most attractive preserves in the is thought that no great difficulty will attend 

 state. the operation of recovering a large share of 



1 1 is stated that both of these concerns to- i the timber, and with the pine delivered at the 

 gether at present control about fourteen miles ; mills in as good a condition as the day it was 

 of forest line along the river. Otsego County cut the logs will command high prices. What 

 Herald. arrangements have been made by Mr. Shay 



, '.vith the lumbering companies which cut the 

 HEMLOCK BARX NOT NEEDED. timber is not known, but in any event a num- 



Charles F. Young, manager of the Tanners ber f th , e concerns have passed out of exist- 

 Supply Company, of Grand Rapids, has re ence - and thelr n S hts m the connection will 

 turned from a business trip in the south aftc 

 an absence of three weeks during which tim 

 he placed orders for $900,000 worth of th 

 chotnut extract for the tanneries which ar 



embraced in the association represented by th 

 supply company. This mikes a total of $: 



not arise. 



Mr. Shay may have to settle with the own- 

 ers of the lang along the banks of the Manis- 

 tique, however, as the courts have decided 

 that the owner of .the river frontage is en- 

 titled to all of the logs reclaimed within the 



200.000 which has been invested by this com boundaries of his land. 



pany in tanning extract since May of last 



"Tanners aje no longer dependent upo 

 hemlock bark for the operation of their bus 

 - Mr. Young. "Today we coul 



NEW LOGGING RAILROAD. 



A logging railroad will be built in Mastodon 

 township, from county, by Sawyer, Goodman 



move along just as we'l if the entire hemloc & Company in conjunction with the C. M. 



b-'rk supply was cut off. that is. if the suppi 

 of extract continued. As to the falling off o 

 the latter it is a possibility which is entire! 

 too remote to consider when vou realize th 

 various materials which can be utilized fo 

 this purpose. 



"Sirce we began using the extract our nee 

 for hemlock bark has fallen off fully 65 pe 

 cent. The material benefits in the substitutio 

 of the extracts for the bark, aside from th 

 nmple supplies of the former and the decrea c 

 ing production of the latter, lie in the expe^- 

 tion of handling which is a very noticeabl' 

 economy. In ninety minutes we can tinloa 

 a tank car of the extract automatically int' 

 the storage vats. The amount of extract give 

 is equivalent to 150 cords of bark or twelv 



carloads. To unload this amount of bark tended as needed 



St. P. Railway Company. The Milwaukee 

 road will build about a mile of track up to 

 the immense tract of timber owned by Saw- 

 yer-Goodman and that concern will build 

 the road the remainder of the distance. 



The road will branch off the Milwaukee 

 road between the Dunn mint and the creek 

 and will run southwest to the Sawyer-Good- 

 man timber. 



The first mile of the track, that up to the 

 edge of the timber, will be substantially built 

 Hut from that point out the road will be purely 

 a logging road. 



The surveyors have started work on the 

 new branch and as soon as that work is com- 

 oleted the contract will be let for the 'grading 

 of the line to the woods where it will be ex- 



