MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



LUMBER TRADE OF 



SAGINAW VALLEY 



The railroads doing business in the Saginaw 

 valley moved from Saginaw river points in 

 1907 an aggregate of 203,008,000 feet of lum- 

 ber products. This includes pine, hemlock 

 and hardwood lumber in the shape of building 

 material, box shocks, doors and sash and 

 dressed lumber, but does not include shingles, 

 lath, wood or cooperage stock. One road 

 alone moved 214 carloads of cooperage stock, 

 says E. D. Cowles, the lumber statistician of 

 the Saginaw valley. 



The rail shipments in 1885 aggregated 149,- 

 672,000 feet and ten years later they had 

 reached 507,490,000 feet. Since the last named 

 year the shipments have ranged from the 

 figures given for that year down to those for 

 the year just closed. In 1906 they were 383,- 

 000,000 feet and the year previous they aggre- 

 gated 397,000,000 feet. The scarcity of cars 

 last winter somewhat handicapped the move- 

 ment and the panic coming on in October 

 last materially cut down the business. 



The evolution of the lumber industry in the 

 'Saginaw valley has been marked. The. pio- 

 neers of the section were attracted to the val- 

 ley chiefly by reason of the vast areas of 

 valuable timber tributary to the streams that 

 make up the Saginaw river. The value of the 

 timber resources was appreciated at a very 

 early day but only faintly at the outset. Lum- 

 bering had attained some proportions before 

 a railroad had reached the valley, and for 

 many years the lumber industry was confined 

 to cutting the logs in the great forests, rafting 

 the logs down the streams to Saginaw and 

 Bay City, where large mills were erected to 

 convert them into rough lumber. This pro- 

 cess of manufacture being complete the lum- 

 ber was then sold to eastern parties and it 

 was shipped by water in cargo lots. 



This developed into a large industry. The 

 first cargo of lumber was shipped from the 

 Saginaw river in 1836, the lumber being 

 shipped from the Emerson mill and destined 

 for the Albany market. There was but little 

 attention, however, paid to lumbering for 

 some years. The financial and industrial panic 

 following 1836 produced such a fearful reac- 

 tion through the country and caused those 

 who had ventured into the industry in a prim- 

 itive way such discouragement that they sim- 

 ply laid down. 



It was not until 1848-9 that business in lum- 

 bering in the valley began to show any signs 

 of awakening. Then it moved along slowly 

 and ten years later it was respectably inaugur- 

 ated. Still ten years later it was reasonably 

 well systematized, and in the late- seventies it 

 was at its palmy period. 



The production jumped from 133,500,000 

 feet in 1863 to 619,867,021 feet in 1873, and it 

 reached the high water mark with 1,011,274,905 

 feet in 1882. 



Early in the seventies some little attention 

 was given to finer manipulation of lumber for 

 distribution by rail. There were a few small 

 planing mills and factories, but the business 

 of these was almost wholly local, working up 

 building material for local building operations. 



The late A. H. Mershon was one of the first 

 advocates of establishing local factories for 

 the working up of the raw material and dis- 

 tributing the same by rail instead of moving 

 it out in cargo lots to other cities where 

 armies of men were given employment in 

 working it up. 



Mr. Mershon had a box factory going in 

 1873 and thereafter and did enough business 

 to demonstrate that it was capable of develop- 

 ment. The water shipments increased from 

 430.128,000 feet in 1868 to 858,344,000 feet in 

 1882. 



The great obstacle in .the way of moving 

 lumber by rail was the indisposition of trunk 

 lines of railroad to grasp the vastness of the 

 traffic and the tonnage offered and could not 

 be convinced of the importance of giving 



rates which would enable them to move this 

 product. 



For years shippers from the valley were 

 compelled to pay full Chicago rates to eastern 

 points on lumber products, although situated 

 nearly 300 miles nearer New York. About 

 1892, through the persistent and united efforts 

 of shippers and local railroad officials rates 

 were reduced to 92 per cent of the Chicago 

 rates. The business then increased rapidly 

 and box factories, sash and door factories and 

 planing mills multiplied. 



At the present time very little lumber is 

 shipped in the rough from the Saginaw valley, 

 but many million feet are brought in in the 

 rough, then the stock is worked up in the 

 mills and factories and the product is shipped 

 out in carloads to all sections of the country. 

 Lumber in the rough is brought in from Can- 

 ada and other lake manufacturing points to 

 the extent of more than 100,000,000 feet annual- 

 ly, and as much more comes by rail, while over 

 100,000,000 feet is manufactured in the valley. 

 Rail shipments are made to Michigan, Ohio, 

 Indiana, Pennsylvania and other eastern and 

 southeastern points. 



During the last year the movement was 

 reasonably fair up to the advent of the money 

 scare, when the business declined approxi- 

 mately 33 per cent'. Just now there isn't much 

 doing. Present stocks are not excessive. In 

 fact there is no over-production, and as soon 

 as trade brightens the mills will be forced to 

 resume operations in full and in part in order 

 to take care of the business. 



REFORESTING MONTCALM FARM. 



The first known attempt at reforesting farm 

 lands in that section of Michigan will be 

 made this spring, when A. J. Briggs, of Ed- 

 more, will begin operations for the reforesta- 

 tion of five acres of his twenty-acre farm, 

 located in Montcalm county, one mile 

 east of Edmore. Mr. Briggs' firstS&cp 

 will be on post tim'ber, and for that 

 he will plant two acres of black locust and 

 three acres to white pine, chestnut, whitewood 

 and a mixture. 



F. H. Sanford, an expert of the forestry 

 department of the Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege at Lansing, recommended to Mr. Briggs 

 the kind of trees to wnich the soil is best 

 adapted and from which the quickest results 

 could be obtained for this particular pifvpose. 

 Ordinarily it takes from five to eight years 

 to grow post timber. 



The small trees may be obtained of the 

 forestry department of the Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College at a cost not to exceed $3.50 

 per thousand, which is about the cost of rais- 

 ing them from the seed. The department 

 furnishes the trees in small quantities only, 

 as it is desired to distribute them as equally 

 as possible throughout the state. Trees pur- 

 chased from nurseries would not cost more 

 than $7 per thousand. 



Mr. Sanford. who has been at Edmore in 

 consultation with Mr. Briggs, says: 



"The forestry department of the Agricultural 

 College furnishes recommendations, to those 

 who apply, free of cost. It agrees to send 

 a man to inspect the woodlot free of all cost 

 to .the woodlot owner, simply asking the 

 owner to meet the expert at the station, 

 maintaining him while at the work, and re- 

 turning him to the station. The object of 

 the department in this is to secure data on 

 the growth of trees in different portions of 

 the state; and it reserves the privilege of 

 making measurements on the plantation at 

 any time it sees fit. 



"Farmers of the state are taking up the 

 work in co-operation with the department 

 with great enthusiasm, realizing the fact they 

 must grow their own timber if they have any 

 in a few years. 



"Another phase of the scientific work which 

 the department is undertaking is post and 

 timber preservation. It offers to treat fence 

 posts with creosote free of charge to the 

 farmer and pay the freight one wav. Out 



of each lot of posts sent, we reserve the 

 right of taking ten posts for experimental 

 purposes. The treating plant has been in oper- 

 ation less than a' month and has turned out 

 about one thousand posts. Several carload 

 lots have already been sent to the department. 

 One of the state telephone companies 'has 

 agreed to furnish ten thousand telephone poles 

 and cross-arms for treatment. 



"The butt half of the post is treated with 

 boiling creosote for five hours. The primary 

 object of this treatment is to utilize the soft, 

 quick-growing trees, such as basswood, poplar, 

 soft maple, ash, willow and elm, rendering 

 such species capable of resisting soil action 

 and decay for from four to five times their 

 natural life. In other words, a basswood post 

 before treatment weighed twenty-nine pounds, 

 and after treatment sixty-three pounds. The 

 difference in weight was the amount of creo- 

 sote boiled into the post, thoroughly permeat- 

 ing the timber. Sample sections of posts will 

 be sent to any persons who desire to inspect 

 the action of creosote on timber. 



"The department is ready at any time to 

 assist any farmer or neighborhood in the erec- 

 tion of a treating plant of their own. Such 

 a plant for the treatment of fence posts only 

 should not cost over $60." 



WHITE MOUNTAIN RESERVE. .. 



It is understood that Speaker Cannon, of 

 the House of Representatives at Washington 

 has withdrawn his stubborn opposition to the, 

 proposed purchase of forest tracts in live 

 White mountains and the Appalachian moun- 

 tains, and will permit the bill to come at least 

 to discussion. 



From every point of view the acquisition 

 of these tracts is a desirable measure. There 

 is no question that the annual loss to the 

 country as a result of their present treat- 

 ment exceeds the sum required for their pur- 

 cwse. It is also beyond doubt that if they 

 shall become a part of our national forests 

 a stop will be put to an expensive drain on 

 our national resources and a present waste 

 be*onverted into a profit. The point of spe- 

 cial regret is the proposal to secure only 

 600,000 acres in the White mountains and only 

 5,000,000 acres in the Appalachians. The com- 

 mission assigned last spring to a survey and 

 investigation of these regions reported on 23.- 

 000,000 acres of forests, north and south. Even 

 a few years will see the end of the forests 

 area. It includes, however, the sections upon 

 which the water supply is most directly de- 

 pendent, and witter supply and regulation are 

 quite as important as forest preservation. 



Unless steps are taken for their protection 

 a few yeors will see the end of the forests 

 of the eastern mountains. The hills are be- 

 ing stripped of their timber, and after the 

 trees are gone there will come an incalculable 

 loss, from drought and flood. Millions of dol- 

 lars' worth of power for mills and factories 

 will be destroyed. Secretary Wilson estimates 

 a present loss of 100 square miles a year of 

 arable land washed from the mountain slopes 

 by spring fliods. As the hills are denuded of 

 their forest growth this loss is increased. The 

 continuance of our present policy means bar- 

 renness and sterility where thousands of 

 people should live in comfort and reasonable 

 prosperity. It means waste, destruction and 

 loss throughout an enormous area. 



LABOR OF LOVE. 



One reason why it has been slow work- 

 arousing public interest in the forestry ques- 

 tion, has been the fact that it was apparently 

 only a labor of love, as the next generation 

 would be the only one to benefit by the work 

 of the one planting and tending the trees. 

 This is not entirely true. Prof. Filibert Roth, 

 of the Michigan Forestry Commission, has 

 declared time and again that the waste lands 

 can be made to pay good returns if they are 

 nlaced in the care of the commission. 



