MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



Michigan Forestry Association. 



The .Michigan Fore-try Association was organized in Grand Rapids August 30, 1905, having for its object the promotion of a rational si 

 restry in Michigan. The society is managed by the following roster of officers: President, John H. Bissell, of Detroit; Vice-President, R. 

 in. Grayling; Secretary, J. Fred Baker, Lansing; Treasurer, J. J. Hubbell, Manistee. Board of Directors Mrs. Francis King. Alma; Hon. 

 Arthur Hill. Saginaw ; S. M. Lemon. Grand Rapids; H. X. Loud, Au Sable; Tnos. B. Wyman. Munising ; Prof. Filibert Roth, Ann Arbor. 

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



PROCEEDINGS ANNUAL 

 MEETING OF MICHIGAN 

 FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 





The annual meeting of the Michigan Forestry 

 iation, which was held at Saginaw this 

 month, was a representative gathering of men 

 and women of Michigan and of other suites who 

 are interested in this very important subject. The 

 attendance was very gratifying to the officials of 

 the association. President John H. Bissell, of 

 :t, called the opening session to order at 

 9:30 o'clock Tuesday morning, Nov. 12. The 

 address of welcome was made by W. B. Mershon. 

 the well known Saginaw lumberman. 



Mr. Mershon said : 



"I asked Mr. Garfield and Prof. Roth to try to 

 have the annual meeting of the Michigan For- 

 A^ociation held this year in Saginaw be- 

 I felt that the Saginaw valley needed an 

 awakening in forestry matters. A meeting to dis- 

 forestry has never been held here. It is 

 time Saginaw awakened to the state's and na- 

 tion's needs of earnest consideration and action 

 of and on forestry matters. 



are here and I know all the Saginaw val- 

 ley needs to do its share in the great work is the 

 start that this meeting will give. That this meet- 

 ing, having for its purpose the devising of ways 

 and means for the saving for economical use the 

 M\l growing and making the lands that 

 have once grown trees grow another and contin- 

 crop of trees, should be held here in Sag- 

 inaw seems most appropriate 



Home of the White Pine. 



"Saginaw for nearly three-quarters of a cen- 

 tury has been known the world over as the home 

 of the white pine lumber industry one of the 

 greatest industries of our country 



"Many of our old time lumbermen have passed 



away, others in their declining years no longer 



are actively engaged in business, but gentlemen, 



as of Saginaw lumbermen are many of them 



ing tljeir fathers' business here or in other 



state-. 



"The old Saginaw lumberman's blood i- 

 true and sturdy as of yore. This generation of 

 the Saginaw valley I know will join heartily with 

 ;iid will not be backward in doing every- 

 thing possible to help save, renew and perpetuate 

 the forest growth of our state. 



"Mr. Garfield said that long-winded papers and 

 dry statistics would be largely cut out this year 

 and it would partake of a 'talk in meeting' 

 nature. My reference to the valley and its lum- 

 ber business will not seem complete without a 

 few figures. I will make them in round numbers 

 and skip fractions, and ^Mr. Garfield will pardon 

 me I know for he knows what 'skipping fractions' 

 means. 



"My friend, E. D. Cowles, is my good helper 

 when I want figures on the white pine and lum- 

 ber industry. I was in hopes he could present them 



in person, but he writes that with lots of work 

 to do and with health not of the best he could 

 not devote the time and strength to come; yet I 

 hope he will drop in on us for he knows more re- 

 garding the history of the lumber industry of 

 Michigan, past and present, than any other man 

 in the state of Michigan. So the following figures 

 are Mr. Cowles' : 



Early Lumber Days. 



"The Saginaw river lumber manufacturing dis- 

 trict, a strip of territory' stretching a distance of 

 twenty miles on both banks of the Saginaw river 

 from its entrance to the bay, was for many years 

 the most prolific producer of pine lumber in the 

 United States. Lumbering was started in 1832 by 

 Gardner D. Williams & Brother, who built a 

 small mill at Saginaw to cut lumber for local pur- 

 poses. In 1835 another sawmill "was erected and 

 thence on for a number of years increased atten- 

 tion was given to the business. The Saginaw 

 river drains a large area through its tributaries 

 and the pine timber was cut in the territory 

 traversed and contiguous to the Cass, Flint, Bad. 

 Tittabawassee, Sugar, Pine, Cedar, Salt, Chip- 

 pewa. Shiawassee, Tobacco, Molasses and a num- 

 ber of other streams, while the Rifle, Kawkawlin 

 and Au Gres rivers emptying their waters into 

 Saginaw bay floated down hundreds of millions of 

 feet of logs which were rafted to the Saginaw 

 river to be manufactured. 



''The country was peculiarly adapted to lum- 

 bering and it was conducted for forty years under 

 conditions nowhere equalled. And when the tim- 

 ber near the stream was cut off the railroads pene- 

 trated to the interior and brought down the rough 

 logs to the Saginaw river mills to be manufac- 

 tured. The old Flint and Pere Marquette hauled 

 from 1882 to 1890 a total of 1,255,000,000 feet of 

 saw logs and from 1S80 to date the Michigan 

 Central has hauled on its Mackinaw division be- 

 tween Bay City and Wolverine, more than 2,500,- 

 000,000 of unmanufactured logs exclusive of the 

 quantity manufactured at mills along the line of 

 the road. This division is now hauling 130,000,000 

 feet of logs yearly. 



44 Mills in 1857. 



"The panic of 1S36 affected the lumber busi- 

 f the valley seriously and not until late in 

 the forties did it begin to revive. In 1S5T there 

 were 44 mills in operation and 113,000,000 feet of 

 lumber was manufactured. Xo regular compila- 

 tion of figures showing the extent of the industry 

 was undertaken until 1SG3 since which the cut has 

 been annually compiled. These figures furnish 

 some idea of the output: 1S63. 133.5SO.OOO feet; 

 1^70. :,:r,,726,606 feet; 1S73, 619.S07.021 feet: 

 -7::.()4T.731 feet: iss2. 1.011.274.905. high water 

 mark; 1S90. Si5.fi54.4ii:> ; i^.io. 3t8.797.879; 1906. 

 114.si7.566, being but one-half the annual require- 

 ments of Michigan railroads for ties alone. In 

 round figures there has been produced since rec- 



ords have been kept a grand total of 25,000,006,- 

 000 feet of lumber on the Sag'inaw river. 



"The pine timber became scarce in 1*95 and 

 since then the cut has been mixed with hardwood 

 and hemlock. During the last three or four years 

 only one sawmill has manufactured pine exclus- 

 ively and that was destroyed by fire October of 

 the present year. All the territory from the Sag- 

 inaw river to Cheboygan county and extending 

 from the west line of the tier of counties of which 

 Gladwin. Roscommon, Crawford, Otsego form a 

 part, east to Lake Huron, contribute to the sup- 

 ply of the Saginaw river mills, though within the 

 territory named there are scores of sawmills also 

 engaged in the manufacture of lumber, shingles 

 and lath. This section of the state last year, in- 

 cluding the Saginaw valley, produced 463.000,000 

 feet of lumber, pine forming but one-third of the 

 output, hemlock and hardwood being easy as to 

 honors. 



Led the World for 50 Years. 



"Lumbering in the state began at an early day. 

 During a period covering nearly fifty years Mich- 

 igan led the world in the production of white 

 pine lumber. As far back as 1874 the produc- 

 tion of lumber in the state totaled 2.S66.351.027 

 feet, and in 1875 the output was 2,691,965,38s 

 feet. After that date it increased. Ten years 

 later the figures show an output of 3. 

 feet and the high water mark was reached i; 

 when the output was ,4,392,914,000 feet. The de- 

 cline since then has been gradual. 



"In 1901 it was 1,998,347,000 feet and in 1905 it 

 was 1,793,310,111 feet and last year it was 1,920,- 

 000,000 feet. 



"In 1874 there was produced in the state 1.3S3.- 

 870,000 nearly all white pine shingles and the high 

 water mark was reached in 1886, the output of 

 that year reaching the total of 2,989,124,232 shin- 

 gles. Of late years there has been a steady 

 decline. 



"The output in 1904 was 1,055,543,250 shingles 

 and in 1903 it was 1,380,165,000, mostly cedar. The 

 lath output in 1904 was 189.716.950 pieces. 



"Some idea of the enormous extent of the 

 lumber industry in the state is furnished in the 

 figures showing a production in a single decade 

 from 1885 to 1905 inclusive of 58,194,095.467 feet 

 of lumber and 36,560,508,637 shingles. Can one 

 comprehend these figures in their forest consump- 

 tive enormity ? I doubt it. 



"Gentlemen, it is with no selfish or mercenary 

 purpose that you are here, no thought of indi- 

 vidual gain has prompted you to undertake this 

 pioneer work, for well you know that the reward 

 to be is for the gain of generations to come. Your 

 \vork and purpose is that of your country's future 

 need and good. I am indeed honored in having 

 this opportunity to say to you the people of Sag- 

 inaw most heartily welcome your coming.'' 



Thornton A. Green, of Ontonagon, was unable 

 to be present to make the response to the ad- 



