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 

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

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

 Arthur Hill, Saginaw; S. M. Lemon, Grand Rapids; H. N. Loud, Au Sable; Thos. 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. 



APPALACHIAN-WHITE 



MOUNTAIN RESERVE 



On January 30 a hearing on the Appalachian- 

 White Mountain bill was had before the Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives at Washington. The occasion was 

 a notable one. There were present about two 

 hundred bus'.ness men, representing twenty 

 states, and hundreds of business and other 

 organizations. At the head of the delegation 

 were Governors Smith, of Georgia, and Floyd, 

 of New Hampshire. All of the evidence pre- 

 sented was on the high plane of .expert testi- 

 mony. The need for national forests in the 

 two regions for the preservation of timber sup- 

 ply, the protect-on of water powers, and the 

 maintenance of navigation was ably presented 

 by the men most competent to speak on each 

 phase of the question. By the public declara- 

 tion of the chairman, Hon. Charles F. Scott. 

 the committee were deeply impressed with the 

 importance of the measure. 



Governor Smith, who had charge of the 

 presentation, said: "Preservation of these for- 

 ests is absolutely essential for the future pros- 

 perity of the states reaching from Maine to 

 Alabama. The problem cannot be handled by 

 the states nor by individuals, because a forest 

 is commonly >.n one state, and the rivers and 

 harbors affected by it in other states. The 

 forest supplies the natural reservoir for the 

 water that gives navigation at the mouth of 

 the Savannah river; but this forest is not in 

 Georgia nor South Carolina, but in the moun- 

 tains of North Carolina." The governor de- 

 clared that, though himself a strict construc- 

 tionist, the constitutional power of Congress, 

 in such a case, was to him clear. 



Reserve Generally Approved. 



Governor Smith presented a collection of 

 resolutions favoring the Appalachian bill from 

 more than sixty-six bodies, organized and un- 

 organized, extending from New Hampshire to 

 Georgia and as far west as Wisconsin and 

 Michigan. 



A resolution was presented from the South 

 Carolina Legislature, instructing the represen- 

 tatives from that state to support the Appala- 

 chian forest bil'l. 



Congressman Ramsdell, president of the Riv- 

 ers and Harbor Congress, attended the hearing. 

 Me said he agreed with the French Ambassa- 

 dor no forests, no rivers. 



Gifford Pinchot, United States Forester, 

 stated that the country is on the verge of a 

 timber famine, that the timber supply will last 

 barely thirty years, that the hardwood supply 

 is much nearer exhaustion than the soft wood 

 supply, and our only source of hardwood now 

 i.s the Appalachian region. 



On deforestation and floods he said: "I 

 have stood with one foot on each side of a little 

 brook and washed my hands and face in it. in 

 the summer time, when the water was low: 

 and this same brook, which had its head in the 

 steep slopes on wh'.ch the forest had been de- 

 stroyed, had, during floods, carried and piled 

 up hemlock logs three feet through and tweni\ 

 feet long in windrows and had moved bowlders 

 of many tons ; .n weight. This was simp'.y 

 because of the deforestation of this steep 

 watershed with a uniform grading." 



Mr. Pinchot stated that our National forests 

 are self-supporting, and will, as in Germany, 

 yield a revenue. The Appalachian forests, 

 which he hris personally known for seventeen 



J. FRED BAKER. 



Professor of Forestry, Michigan Agricultural 



College, New Secretary of Michigan 



Forestry Association. 



years, will be a valuable investment for the 

 government. 



Philip W. Ayres, forester of the Society for 

 Protection of New Hampshire Forests, said 

 the White Mountains produce spruce pu 1 ^ 

 which is limited in the area of its growth. 

 Stopping the supply of this would be felt 

 throughout the United States. There is dan- 

 ger of this stoppage because of the destructive 

 methods of cutting. The operators cut not 

 only the trees they want, but frequently all the 

 others, that logs may be more easily removed. 

 Thus the mountain sides arc denuded. If some 

 trees are left, they are usually wind thrown. 

 Fire follows, destroying the young growth 

 and even the soil itself. This puts back the 

 growth from one hundred to three hundred 

 years. In many cases, where the soil erodes 

 away, it will be impossible to get another 

 forest until another ice age shall come and 

 establish the beginnings of a new fertility. 



George F. Swain, professor of civil engineer- 

 ing in the Masachusetts Institute of Technol- 

 ogy, member of the Boston Transit Commis- 

 sion, and official representative of the state of 

 Massachusetts, said: 



Situation in New England. 



"The Society of Civil Engineers has been 

 very conservative and has never before me- 

 morialized Congress in ;my way. The engi- 

 neers are very apprehensive with reference to 

 the timber supply. They have been tryiiv 

 to find a substitute, and concrete has come 

 into very wide use, but the question of timber 

 is still an exceedingly important one to engi- 

 neers. We want these forests for the sake of 

 Ihe timber supply and for the regulation of tlu 1 

 rivers. 



"The importance of water power to N'ew 

 i'nirland need hardly be emphasized. New 

 England has few natural resources: it has no 



mines of precious metals, no copper, coal, pr 

 agriculture, but it has its forests, streams ;md 

 manufactures. The manufactures of New F.n in- 

 land and all the large towns grew up because 

 of the water powers. Alonjf the streams 

 draining the area of the proposed national 

 forest in the White Mountains it is jstimated 

 that 2."i(),()oo horse-power are developed, and 

 there is perhaps an equal amount undeveloped, 

 li our streams become irregular, steam power 

 must be used, more and more, v<> supplement 

 the water power, and every nay the steam 

 power is an added expense to the mills." 



Electrical Engineers, in Line. 



A. M. Schoen, of Ashevilie, N. C., said that 

 S represented the American Institute of Elec- 

 trical Engineers, an Oiganization with :>,(>uo 

 members. Electrical engineers were formerly 

 skeptical about the influence of forests upon 

 stream Mow and water power. They appoint- 

 ed a committee to investigate this; the investi- 

 gation has been in progress three or four 

 years. The result is that the Institute has 

 recently passed the resolutions which were 

 presented at this hearing, urging- the establish- 

 ment of the national forests that the stream 

 value might be maintained. 



Electrical transmission has given an enor- 

 mous value to water power. Railroads were 

 originally built on ridges away from streams. 

 Mills on streams were handicapped by their 

 remoteness from railroads. Now electrical 

 transmission enables the mill owner to locate 

 his mill by the railroad and to draw his power 

 from the plant by the river. This fact has 

 enormously enhanced the value of the water 

 power. 



To replace with steam the water power 

 already developed in the South would increase 

 operating expenses from three million dollars 

 to ten million dollars per year. To substitute 

 steam for water powers still undeveloped 

 would involve a sacrifice of from sixteen mil- 

 lion dollars to forty-eight million dollars. 



W. S. Lee. Jr.. of Charlotte. N. C.. also a 

 member of the Institute of Electrical Engi- 

 neers, spoke of the work of his company. He 

 said : 



"We are furnishing power to twenty-six 

 towns, seventy-eight cotton mills and various 

 small manufacturing enterprises. Our work 

 has been going on only six years. In that time 

 we have had to make our plants heavier that 

 is, sections of dams larger, in order to take 

 care of the enormous floods year after year. 

 These floods are graduallv grow'ny. but are 

 followed by low water. In conseqenucc. we 

 are offering three classes of power: The first, 

 eall'iitr for twelve months in the year: the 

 second for eight or ten months only, the third 

 for a still shorter period. We sell for con- 

 tinuous delivery not more than sixty per cent 

 of what we ought to have for sale. To main- 

 tain a regular supply, we are now designing 

 a two-million-dollar steam plant. We will 

 have to charge more for this more costly 

 source of power, and the advantage of cheap 

 power for our customers will, in part, dis- 

 appear." 



Flood Damage Is Great. 



!'.. J. Watson, Commissioner of Agriculture. 

 Commerce and Immigration for the State of 

 South Carolina, said: 



"My state is typical of the damage by de- 

 forestation. It is absolutely impossible for 

 South Carolina to protect herself. Fourteen 

 thousand five hundred square miles of the 

 drainage area feeding all the rivers that flow 

 across the state of South Carolina, and having 

 on their banks the seat of manufacturing in 



