MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



Oftc"l Orgui ol The Mich^.n Rod Mikcn As.oei.non .nd Midujin Fanny Aocino 

 SUITE 1406 MAJESTIC BUILDING DETROIT. MICHIGAN 



Frank E. Carter Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 



THE STATE REVIEW PUBLISHING CO., 



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 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 



"Reforestation" as generally used, shows a 

 considerable ignorance as to the state of 

 things, and as to the proper policy and proper 

 method in the treatment of our timber re- 

 sources, if by reforestation is meant artificial 

 replanting. 



Reforesting pre-supposes de-foresting and 

 implies that a forester's work begins when the 

 country is deforested. But truly, forestry be- 

 gins, or should begin when the first tree is 

 cut, so as to make the laborious and expensive 

 method of artificial reforesting unnecessary. 



When, I say, that in the 12,000,000 acres of 

 German forests, which are managed for con- 

 tinuity of wood supplies, the expenditure for 

 planting is less than 18 cents per acre per 

 year, or less than 5 per cent of the total ex- 

 pense, and that in Prussia of the cost of pro- 

 ducing a cubic foot of wood, namely, two 

 cents, only one-third of a cent goes to plant- 

 ing, one will realize that in a well managed 

 forest property the planting cost is a relatively 

 small item. 



There are, to be sure, large areas in Michi- 

 gan where deforestation has progressed to an 

 undesirable, if not dangerous degree, and 

 where it is not only desirable, but practicable 

 and profitable to begin the work of artificial 

 reforestation of these denuded areas. Why 

 during the recent strike in the anthracite coal 

 regions of the eastern states, this section actu- 

 ally suffered from a fuel famine, because the 

 farmers' wood-lots were too scanty to supply 

 domestic needs. 



Y'OU should, however, understand that such 

 planting of farmers' wood lots has no more 

 meaning for the general lumber supply than 

 the apples in your back garden have in the 

 fruit supply of the country. It can, for prac- 

 tical and technical reasons, accomplish only 

 three things, namely, to furnish local domestic 

 supplies, to improve conditions of the farm, 

 and to make waste lands useful producers. 

 The policy inaugurated a year or so ago by the 

 Ontario Government of encouraging and as- 

 sisting farmers in re-establishing wood lots, is 

 a wise one, and only needs to be extended an- 

 nually in order to hasten the day when its 

 profitableness to the individuals and to the 

 province in general will be demonstrated be- 

 yond peradventure. 



Technically, there are no mysteries as to 

 how reforestation may be accomplished. Some 

 knowledge of the life history of the species 

 comprising the woods and some knowledge of 



what experience has been gathered during the 

 last hundred years or more by European for- 

 esters, suffices to permit a judicious man to 

 direct nature in doing his will. 



The difficulty in reforestation does not lie 

 in the technical but in the economic direction. 

 The question is not, "Can the pine be repro- 

 duced, and. how?" but "Can I afford to do the 

 things which are necessary to reproduce it?" 

 As far as private forest owners are concerned, 

 it is purely and absolutely a financial question, 

 as to whether it pays better to practice de- 

 structive lumbering or pursue conservative 

 lumbering, which really is primary forestry. 



The answer to the question is, of course, a 

 matter of profit, as in every other business. 

 The same factors which enter into profit cal- 

 culations in other businesses enter here. There 

 is only one factor that is essentially different 

 and characteristic in the forestry business, the 

 time element. In this it differs from every 

 other business but life insurance. The manu- 

 facturer deals with months, or possibly a year, 

 between the receipt of the order and the de- 

 livery of the goods. The farmer reaps annu- 

 ally, and the fruit grower within ten years 

 from the starting of his orchard. But to grow 

 a log of useful size takes from sixty to one- 

 hundred years. Most of the trees which the 

 lumbermen cut today are over one hundred 

 and fifty years from the seeding time, and, 

 while the forester can to some extent hasten 

 the processes of nature, he will only rarely 

 bring acres of forest growth to suitable size 

 for lumber in less than one generation. 



The forester must see into the future. He 

 must feel sure that his crop will be in demand 

 when it matures, that it will meet the changed 

 requirements of a different civilization, that it 

 will be able to compete with other materials 

 which can be used as substitutes, and finally 

 that it will pay for its production. 



Nobody who has studied the history of the 

 world as regards wood consumption, and who 

 has realized the reason for the extensive use 

 of this most useful material, will doubt that, 

 as long as civilization lasts, wood in some 

 form will be a desirable and much sought ma- 

 terial that can not be displaced entirely by any 

 substitutes, although the character and form 

 and amount of its use may greatly vary. 



No more interesting experience on this score 

 could be cited than the ups and downs of the 

 beech forests and tan bark forests of Germany. 

 The latter have become unprofitable by the 

 introduction of quebracho tan. The former, 

 a result of the fuel famine of a hundred years 

 ago, became a drug in the market, when coal 

 was developed, then became valuable for rail- 

 road ties (impregnated), these being displaced 

 by metal ties, and now only by compromise be- 

 tween the railroad and forestry department 

 do these beech forests find a market. 



We see, then, that the time element in for- 

 estry is a speculative element which may all 

 but ruin an otherwise legitimate business. The 

 time element, naturally renders the financial 

 calculations somewhat hazardous. What prices 

 will rule when the crop comes to the market? 

 What interest rate shall we figure on the long 

 time investment? These are all questions of 

 speculative sharacter. Forestry really "is deal- 

 ing in futures. 



We may have no doubt that w'ood prices will 

 increase, as they have increased in the past, 

 indeed, for a time at least, at a greater rate 

 than in the past, for within the last decade not 

 only has the per capita consumption of wood 

 among civilized nations increased at a rate of 

 about 3 to 5 per cent compound per annum, 

 but all the exporting nations have awakened 

 to the realization that their forest resources 

 are not inexhaustible, but are, indeed, measur- 

 ably near the limit of exhaustion, and have be- 

 gun to appreciate their value, and placed bars 

 on their exportation or otherwise limited the 

 cut. 



Wood prices in Prussia doubled between 

 1830 and 1865, and rose 50 per cent in the next 

 30 years. In the 15 years from 1890 to 1905, 

 the rate of increase has been about 2 J / 2 per 



cent, namely, from 4.4 to 6.8 cents per cubic 

 foot. 



In Canada from 1850 to 1904, the average 

 annual rise in price has been not less than 5 

 per cent. You know how much more rapidly 

 it has risen in price since. In the United 

 States the rise has been for some time at 2 l /i 

 to 3 per cent per annum. 



There is no doubt that wood prices will rise 

 and that quickly, but where is the limit, the 

 definite figure which we may use in a calcula- 

 tion made to justify a present expenditure? 



All of this goes to show two great fScts: 



First. That reforestation and the future 

 supply of timber for the United States should 

 be in the hands of the government, state or 

 nation. 



Second. That it will undoubtedly be a 

 profitable venture, but that a large capital is 

 needed to carry on such work. 



HOWARD B. MORSE. 



Forester. 



950,000 TREES FROM GERMANY. 



Many men will get employment by the re- 

 foresting of the Adirondack preserve.. 



New York State has purchased from Ger- 

 many 950,000 seeding trees. They include 

 450,000 two and 500,000 three years old. The 

 two-year-old seedling trees have been put in 

 a new nursery to remain one year, when they 

 will be planted. The 500,000 three-year-olds, 

 with 600,000 that New York State already had 

 in its nurseries, have been planted in the for- 

 ests, making a total this year of 1,100,000 seed- 

 ling trees planted, twice as many as have been 

 planted before in New York State in any one 

 year. The two-year-old seedlings cost . 75 

 cents a thousand and the three-year-9lds $2.65 

 a thousand. 



HIS IDEA OF FORESTRY. 



"I've a good notion," said Plodding Pete, "to 

 join dis forestry association." 



"What fur?" 



"I want de trees preserved in all deir vener- 

 able beauty. I want to see de monarcks of de 

 wilderness left undisturbed in deir peaceful 

 majesty. It's time dis practice of handin' a 

 man an axe an' tellin' him to chop wood was 

 stopped." Washington Star. 



NEW MILL READY. 



The busy hum of saws, and other wood work- 

 ing machinery is soon to be heard at the new mill 

 of Richard Jones on the old site of the Mackinaw 

 Lumber Company's mill and will be a welcome 

 addition to the business activities of St. Ignace. 

 Not for many years has an establishment of such 

 proportions, with so large capacity for manufac- 

 I tured output and furnishing so much in_ the way 

 of employment been a feature of that village. 



A big stock of logs are now on the bank and 

 in the water and a large amount will be brought 

 in in rafts. 



TO MAKE WOOD PULP. 



The Tanners' Supply Company of Grand Rap- 

 ids is contemplating the investment of $250,000 in 

 a plant to convert its refuse wood into wood pulp 

 for paper factories. The material to be thus em- 

 ployed is that former waste from the wood used 

 in producing tanning extract. The company fig- 

 ures a saving of $60,000 annually from this by- 

 product. 



The movement to establish this wood pulp 

 plant is the result of Manager C. F. Young's trip 

 through the south. There is already one such 

 plant in North Carolina and this will be market- 

 ing the wood pulp in July. The plant of the 

 Tanners' Supply Company will have a capacity of 

 forty tons daily, and while there will be an effort 

 made to market its output in six months, it is 

 more likely to be a year before this can be ac- 

 complished, as much detail work remains to be 

 done. 



The Kneeland-Bigelow mill, at Bay City, has 

 begun sawing, running day and night shifts. The 

 Kneeland, Buell Bigelow mill has also started 

 on a 10-hour a day run. 



