MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



active support of the press in giving publicity to 

 deliberations of this convention. 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



After the members had been welcomed to Bat- 

 tle Creek by J. I. Gibson, secretary of the Indus- 

 trial Association, President John H. Bissell read 

 his animal address, which was as follows: 



On behalf of the Michigan Forestry Associa- 

 tion I have the pleasure of expressing most sin- 

 cere thanks for its welcome to this city so cor- 

 dially extended by the president of the Battle 

 Creek Industrial Association. It is particularly 

 gratifying to the officers and members of the 

 Forestry Association to hold its meeting in this 

 city, as it gives them the opportunity of explain- 

 ing to this community the association's position 

 with reference to what its members believe to be 

 important state problems. The invitation is, also, 

 a recognition on the part ot the Battle Creek 

 Industrial Association that the purposes and work 

 of the Michigan Forestry Association are well 

 worth its consideration, and that of the intelli- 

 gent and progressive citizenship which it repre- 

 'sents. While the Forestry Association seeks to 

 reach all the citizens of the state, in doing that 

 we realize it will be more speedily and completely 

 accomplished by reaching primarily the various 

 organizations of business men, who are working 

 for the industrial growth and development of the 

 state of Michigan that industrial growth and 

 development is exactly what the Forestry Asso- 

 ciation wishes to aid. 



Mr. Bissell here alluded to the work of the 

 Detroit Board of Commerce and the Grand 

 Rapids Board of Trade as an example of what 

 organized effort can do along these lines. Con- 

 tinuing, he said: These associations, by the fact 

 of their existence, testify to the faith of the organ- 

 izers that all the purposes of both will be best 

 prompted by organized effort. Your association 

 is primarily interested in commercial, civic and 

 social problems, being worked out here in your 

 midst. The Forestry Association seeks to interest 

 all citizens of Michigan, especially the electorate 

 of the entire state, in the problems with which it 

 has to deal, because they are state problems, only 

 to be worked out, in a rational and satisfactory 

 manner, by creating a wholesome, state-wide pub- 

 lic opinion ; a public opinion so widespread and 

 forceful that it will secure from the state govern- 

 ment in its executive, legislative and judicial de- 

 partments the enactment and the enforcement of 

 the measures connected with a forestry policy 

 necessary for the continued welfare of the state. 

 The nature and particulars of the measures for 

 which we stand will be treated of in the discus- 

 sions at these meetings of the Forestry Associa- 

 tion. 



Organization Is Necessary. 



If any considerable body of citizens desire re- 

 forms in politics, whether of the state, the county, 

 or the city, to work efficiently for such reforms, 

 they organize. 



In recognition of the American way of "getting 

 things done" by organized effort, the friends and 

 students of forestry are convinced that to make 

 the desired impression upon the great body of 

 our citizens, it is necessary to maintain and work 

 an organization, to do by united effort what, as 

 individuals, we can not do. We mean by 

 "Forestry," as we use the term here, to include 

 all the economic questions bearing in any degree 

 upon the ultimate use of suitable public and 

 private lands in the growth, protection and utiliza- 

 tion of forests. 



What are these problems? Without going into 

 detail. I wish to picture them for you, if I can, 

 in rough outline : 



Public Land System Wrong. 



1. The Michigan public land system is wrong. 

 The state has wasted enormous sums of money in 

 acauiring, holding and disposing of lands, some 

 of which could have paid the state a profit, if intel- 

 ligently dealt with, and a large part of which 

 should have been kept by the state as an asset 

 of great future valuation. 



2. The Michigan system of forest taxation is 

 wrong, in that it has hastened the improvident 



cutting and marketing of the forests, with no 

 encouragement for private owners to keep their 

 holdings and improve them for successive crops ; 

 it has been all for the present emergency, nothing 

 for the future and the generations to come! 



3. The failure of the state government to put 

 into operation a decent system of protection 

 against prairie, bush or forest fires is a wrong 

 against the lives and property of many innocent 

 people and an incalculable loss of wealth to the 

 people of the state at large. 



So much for the delinquencies of the state. 



4. The people of the state owning farm wood- 

 lots have almost universally failed to appreciate 

 their value as important factors in the preserva- 

 tion of moisture for adjacent cultivated lands, 

 their influence on springs and streams; and the 

 value of their products if properly and intelli- 

 gently cared for. 



Every Acre In State Should Produce. 



It is necessary for the complete development 

 and maintenance of the industries of the state and 

 the welfare of all its inhabitants that all of the 

 lands within the state borders shall be put to the 

 best possible use ; that is, each acre of land shall 

 produce something that is needed or can be used 

 by the people 9f the state, and that each acre shall 

 make its contribution to the commonwealth. With 

 a steadily increasing population there must be a 

 corresponding increase in the production of the 

 necessaries of life. This is self-evident, even if 

 there is to be no progressive advance in the con- 

 ditions of life. If any part of the state's area is 

 not producing anything, or is only producing a 

 fractional part of what it is capable of, the general 

 development of the state, is, in exactly the same 

 proportion, retarded. If special or given areas of 

 land are suitable for the production of ordinary 

 farm crops then it is to the advantage of the com- 

 munity that those lands be used for that purpose 

 to the limit of their capacity. If other lands are 

 suited to the production of fruits of various use- 

 ful kinds, they should be used to that end. If, on 

 account of distance from the centers of trade or 

 the present avenues of traffic, or the general char- 

 acter and qualities of the soil, lands are not favor- 

 able to the uses of agriculture or horticulture or 

 are especially suited for timber growth, then it is 

 most advantageous to the state that lands of that 

 character and situation should be utilized for the 

 growth of forests. It is as necessary to the wel- 

 fare of the state that its people should have 

 available, at reasonable prices, materials for 

 habitations, farm buildings, factories, churches, 

 schools and house furnishings, as that they should 

 be able to supply themselves with the necessary 

 variety of foods ; wood for such purposes is one 

 of the necessaries of life. 



State Lands Non-productive. 



The state has a very considerable holding of 

 lands which are not being used for any purpose. 

 That, of course, is a distinct loss to the whole 

 community. How long are we, the people, the 

 taxpayers of this state, willing to have the public 

 lands unused when important industries, and in- 

 terests, public as well as private, are suffering 

 in various ways from the fact that those lands are 

 not put to a proper use? There are lands, cut- 

 over and abandoned to the state for delinquent 

 taxes, now in the process of passing finally to the 

 state ; and others still held by private persons, no 

 part of which are put to a productive use, simply 

 because they have been burned over periodically 

 so that all nature has done for them in the way 

 of new growth, since the original crop was cut 

 and marketed, has been destroyed and wasted. 

 The destruction of the young growth on the 

 burned over lands is not all the story. The same 

 fires have carried destruction to many homes, the 

 improvements, crops and other property of many 

 isolated farmers, and in some cases many lives 

 lost or endangered. Whole villages have been 

 burned and the inhabitants stripped of their homes 

 and property, and the means of supporting them- 

 selves and those dependent upon them. 



How long are we willing to have the state neg- 

 lect its duty to furnish protection? It can not 

 by any possibility be provided by private effort, 



however willing the citizens who are able may be 

 to bear their full share. 



Forestry Association Opens Way. 



With respect to all these problems, the Michigan 

 Forestry Association offers an opportunity to the 

 people of the state to express in an organized 

 and efficient way their opinions on what is the 

 duty of the state respecting them. As the case 

 at present stands the first duty in respect to these 

 questions devolves upon the Michigan Forestry 

 Commission. The commission is established by 

 law, Its members are appointed by the governor 

 and confirmed by the senate. Their powers are 

 inadequate and their practical work, as. defined by 

 law, is within very narrow limits. The Forestry 

 Association was organized to help the State For- 

 estry Commission in the exercise of one of its 

 functions, that is to acquaint the electorate of the 

 state with the conditions, and to disseminate 

 information about the reforms shown by the re- 

 ports of the commission to be required. The work 

 of the association, all who are familiar with it 

 realize, has not been as efficient as we should 

 wish it. The fact, instead of being a discour- 

 agement, should spur us to more careful attention 

 to the work of the association and an effort upon 

 the part of each one of its members to contribute 

 his share in securing a better organization that 

 will work more efficiently. There is nothing novel 

 in our position respecting these problems. All 

 the civilized countries of the world have at one 

 time or another been confronted with situations 

 very much like the present situation in this state. 

 The correction of the evils enumerated, we say, is 

 to be found in the study of the principles of fores- 

 try, and their application in practical use. There 

 is onlv one material point of difference between 

 the situation here, in this age of the world, from 

 that of the people of the old world, who have been 

 forced at different times to adopt forest practice, 

 and that is this : When they were confronted by 

 the scarcity of forest products, or the necessity 

 for growing forests to protect fertile lands from 

 destruction by floods, they have had to learn their 

 lesson step by step, not only by the dire necessity, 

 but, at times, when there was available to them 

 no literature or science of forestry, and no record 

 of its successful application by other nations, to 

 which they could turn. As we are confronted with 

 similar conditions, we are able to turn to the 

 nations who have practiced forestry and to their 

 literature, and with the wonderful facilities of 

 travel in these modern times, we can go upon the 

 ground and see what other nations have done, and 

 learn the principles which can be readily applied 

 and practiced here, to completely meet the condi- 

 tions and remedy the evils as they are recognized. 

 No civilized nation that we have knowledge of 

 has ever evolved, by study, a complete system of 

 forestry and then applied it to the exigencies of 

 its own case. The reason being that no nation 

 has ever studied the principles of forestry or 

 attempted to apply them as an art, until it was 

 actually confronted by an evil which it must 

 grapple with and overcome. 



Forestry In Old World 



In parts of German}-, forestry was first prac- 

 ticed to supply forest products which were sorely 

 needed for the comfort and necessities of the 

 people. In other parts, it was first applied as a 

 means of restoring lands, which had lost their 

 fertility, when stripped of forests, to a condition 

 in which they could again produce the necessaries 

 of life. The principal forest work in France was 

 undertaken mainly for the preservation of the 

 fertile lands in the low countries from being- 

 destroyed and washed away by floods from the 

 mountains and foot-hills that had been improvi- 

 dently denuded of forest cover. There it was 

 never undertaken until the lack of it threatened 

 to reduce the fertile lands to an extent where 

 they could not support the population dependent 

 on them. 



Many educated people in this country and many 

 travelers amongst our fellow citizens have for a 

 good many years been more or less acquainted 

 with what was being done by the nations of 

 Europe with their forests ; but there was no gen- 

 eral demand for the adoption of such principles 

 and practices, in this country, until the considera- 



