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 

 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 MTS. Francis King, Alma; 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. 



FARM FORESTRY 



IN MICHIGAN 



R. S. Kellogg, of the Forest Service. 



No farm can be considered complete and on 

 a right basis unless it contains a good wood- 

 lot. Every farmer who has one realizes fully 

 the usefulness^ and value of such a woodlot. 

 In an open country it gives much needed pro- 

 tection from winds and storms to farm build- 

 ings and crops. It is always a source of posts, 

 poles, firewood, and other useful material. It 

 often yields considerable revenue, and is in 

 every way a valuable adjunct of the farm. 

 Moreover, the woodlot often does, or gen- 

 erally should, occupy land which is of com- 

 paratively small value for other purposes. 

 Many farms contain rough, broken, stony, or 

 swampy land which is poorly adapted to ordin- 

 ary farm crops, but which can be made to 

 produce excellent timber. In this case then, 

 the growing timber upon such land is making 

 the best possible use of it. The disappear- 

 ance of our great forests, and the increasing 

 prices of lumber and other forest products 

 offer an additional reason and necessity for 

 the establishment of farm woodlots. 



The extent of the woodlot must, of course, 

 vary to meet the local conditions and needs. 

 It is probably safe to say that on the average 

 the woodlot should have an area of between 

 10 and 15 per cent of the entire farm. Assum- 

 ing that the farm is to have a woodlot, then 

 this woodlot may be either a survival of a 

 body of natural forest which was left when "the 

 country was cleared, or a plantation of forest 

 trees put out -for- the express purpose of pro- 

 ducing timber. Naturally, the methods of 

 treating these woodlots must vary according 

 to their origin and condition. The woodlot 

 which consists of natural timber will be dis- 

 cussed first. 



Natural Woodlots. 



The condition of the natural woodlot as it 

 occurs on the ordinary farm is apt to be very 

 unsatisfactory. It is commonly pastured, with 

 the result that many of the young trees are 

 broken or damaged by browsing and tramp- 

 ling, and that the natural growth of brush and 

 shrubbery which protects the forest is 

 destroyed. Many of the trees are matured and 

 even deteriorating. Others are partially or 

 entirely dead, and many are croked and more 

 or less decayed. Fallen trees are often lying 

 upon the ground, and thus affording a breed- 

 ing place for insects and fungi. Fires may 

 occur frequently and thus do much to inter- 

 fere with the development of the timber. It 

 is evident that the timber produced under 

 such conditions is much less in quantity and 

 much poorer in quality than it should be. The 

 first thing to do in the rejuvenation of such 

 a woodlot is to protect it from fire and ex- 

 clude stock. The ordinary farmer scarcely 

 realizes it, and indeed often disbelieves it, but 

 nevertheless the presence of any considerable 

 number of stock in a woodlot is highly unde- 

 sirable. The first thing to do then, is to give 

 the woodlot protection in order that nature 

 may have a chance to do her best. Then it 

 should be cleaned up. The mature trees should 

 be taken out, together with all trees of kinds 

 which have little value, for some trees in a 

 forest are really no better than weeds in the 

 cornfield. This cutting should, of course, be 

 made in such a way as to favor the thrifty 

 young specimens of the more valuable species. 

 The most valuable trees which are likely to 

 occur in the ordinary Michigan woodlot are 



white oak, ash, hickory, maple, elm, bass- 

 wood, birch, and beech. The wood of all these 

 trees serves many useful purposes and is 

 bringing increasingly higher prices. No 

 farmer who has timber to sell should part 

 with it until he has fully investigated its pos- 

 sible market value. 



Dense Stands Should Be Thinned. 



It will often happen that the woodlot con- 

 tains dense stands of young timber. These 

 stands must be thinned in order to produce 

 conditions under which the greatest quantity 

 and the best quality of material may be pro- 

 duced. Nature's method of produing the best 

 timber is to sow the seed thickly and then 

 let only the strongest survive. Nature's 

 method is a wasteful one, and by taking ad- 

 vantage of her- laws man can facilitate the 

 operation and at the same time utilize which 

 would otherwise be wasted. 



The quantity of wood formed by a tree de- 

 pends upon the area of leaf surface which is 

 exposed to sunlight. A small leaf surface pro- 

 duces a small amount of wood and a large 

 leaf surface produces a large amount of wood. 

 A healthy tree is constantly endeavoring to 

 increase its leaf surface, and it is by taking 

 advantage of this inherent tendency that the 

 forester is enabled to control the amount and 

 quality of the wood produced. 



Trees increase their size in two ways 

 growth in height and growth in diameter. The 

 rate of increase, however, is never greatest 

 in both ways at the same time. Trees which 

 are crowded while young grow rapidly in 

 height, through the effort to get the crowns 

 into the sunlight, but the diameter growth is 

 correspondingly slow. Crowding produces 

 long, slim stems, which serve as a basis upon 

 which to form the valuable timber of later 

 years. When the stem is of a sufficient height, 

 thinning gives room for an increased crown 

 development and, in consequence, a larger leaf 

 surface in the trees remaining. Height growth 

 then becomes less rapid and diameter growth 

 more rapid. In other words, the desired height 

 and straightness of stem having been obtained, 

 the new wood tissue which is added now goes 

 to increase the tree's diameter, and this begins 

 the period of most profitable development. 

 Thus the natural tendency of trees toward 

 rapid height growth when young is strength- 

 ened by crowding, and the later tendency to 

 slower height growth and more rapid diameter 

 growth is encouraged by thinning. 



Stands of young timber under ten years of 

 age may contain from one to three thousand 

 trees per acre. This will be gradually reduced 

 to perhaps one hundred trees per acre at ma- 

 turity. The' annual growth of timber on a 

 well managed woodlot should be from one to 

 two cords per acre, depending upon the 

 species and the conditions. The woodlot 

 should be so handled that on the average no 

 more timber is cut from than is produced. 

 This, in forestry, is called "the principle of 

 sustained yield," and a woodlot handled upon 

 this principle is a source of perpetual timber 

 supply. 



Forest Plantations. 



The farm which is devoid of a natural wood- 

 lot should have a planted one. The principal 

 functions of forest plantations are for shelter- 

 belts and wind-breaks in exposed situations, 

 as sources of supply for the posts and poles 

 needed on the farm, and a possible profit in 

 the disposal of the surplus material. 



The species selected for planting should be 

 those which grow rapidly and thus produce the 



most timber in th'e shortest time. At best, the 

 growing of timber is rather a long-time 

 proposition, and the ordinary farmer can not 

 afford a very long investment. The species 

 which the Michigan farmer should especially 

 consider for planting, depending upon the 

 locality and soil conditions, are black locust, 

 hardy catalpa, European larch, white pine, red 

 or Norway pine, and Norway spruce. This by 

 no means exhausts the list of species which 

 may be successfully planted in Michigan, but 

 the ones mentioned are those which seem to 

 offer the best returns at present. 



Black locust grows excellently on the or- 

 dinary glacial soil in Southern Michigan which 

 is well drained, ill will produce a large num- 

 ber of exceedingly durable fence posts in a 

 comparatively short time. It does not reach a 

 very large size and is not a long lived tree. 

 As it grows older it is particularly liable to 

 damaging attacks by borers. The black 

 locust, therefore, should not be looked upon 

 as a suitable tree for a woodlot in which large 

 sized material is desired. It gives best results 

 when planted at the rate of about two thou- 

 sand per acre, and cut when a size that will 

 produce small to medium posts is reached, 

 which should be in about fifteen years. An 

 excellent thing about black locust is the readi- 

 ness with which it sprouts from the stumps. 

 A plantation which is cut clean for posts at 

 fifteen years of age will produce as good or 

 better crop in less than fifteen years follow- 

 ing, care being taken of course to thin out 

 the abundant sprouts and favor those which 

 give promise of best development. It is not 

 too much to expect a production of two 

 thousand posts per acre under such conditions. 



Species to Grow. 



A species which is particularly deserving of 

 consideration for all forest plantations in 

 Michigan is the European larch. It is the 

 most rapid growing conifer suitable for plant- 

 ing in this region. It requires a deep well- 

 drained soil, and does not thrive in swampy 

 situations. In this respect it differs greatly 

 from its American cousin, our native tamarack. 

 The European larch is particularly adapted for 

 the production of posts and poles. In planta- 

 tions it grows very straight with a small top, 

 and a large proportion of its body may be 

 utilized. So far European larch has perhaps 

 been more extensively planted in Illinois than 

 in any other state. Assuming a very conser- 

 vative value for posts and poles, a net annual 

 income of from $3 to $8 per acre at 3 per cent 

 is indicated for larch plantations thirty years 

 of age in that state. 



White pine is particularly adapted for plant- 

 ing on the sandy Michigan soils as is evi- 

 denced by the original magnificent stand of 

 white pine on such soils in the state. It is 

 also adaptable to a variety of other soils. As 

 a shelter-belt tree white pine offers an especial 

 advantage of furnishing as much shelter in 

 the winter time, when it is most desired, as 

 at other times of the year, and in this respect 

 is much to be preferred to deciduous species. 

 Plantations of white pine need from 30 to 40 

 years in which to reach the minimum size at 

 which they may be profitably cut. At the end 

 of this time they will furnish suitable material 

 for box boards, pail staves, cooperage, wooden 

 ware, etc. 



Red or Norway pine is adapted to situa- 

 tions similar to those on which white pine suc- 

 ceeds. Its rate of growth is about the same, 

 and it has the additional advantage of being 

 more free from insect injury, as the weevil 

 which works in the terminal shoot may cause 



