MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



THE GROVES GOD'S much good to this country as was accom- embracing the great Appalachian range, the 



n-lDOT TFA/im ro P'' sne d by President Roosevelt in the steps source of so many rivers, the waterpowers of 



rlKbi 1 LMr LL5 taken for the conservation of our forests and all of which will be needed for all time to gen- 



. _ other natural resources. His successor made erate electricity and furnish heat, light and 



... ,, , a mistake, in this regard, when he placed Mr. power for an incalculable period, has ever 



(Address of h.W. Barber, of Jackson, before Ballinger at the head of the interior depart- been 'sold to the forest-destroying speculator, 



Michigan Forestry Association at Jackson.) ment. and that the entire area had not long-ago been 



It is my privilege, especially on behalf of Man Nature's Enemy. , placed in charge of an intelligent Forest Serv- 



r~u i - r /- i Ton loner man his hppn thp pnomv nf tlip Ice the timber cut to save it and not to de- 



its Chamber of Commerce, to welcome you - stroy ; t 



to Jackson on the occasion of this fourth best in nature. For centuries it has been the B > snch mc;lnS( and such only> could the 



annual meeting of public-spirited citizens, fashion to place the world, the flesh and the valleys of the Atlantic slope, and the greater 



whose interest in the subject you have devil in the same bad category. Out of this valleys of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the 



_. i 'j i, -i ,, nernicious idea snr-ins- a hvdra brood of pvik Tennessee rivers, which with their tributaries 



assembled here to consider springs from the I evns. 



fact that it relates exclusively to the future The practice grew among men of maltreating d ^^^^cl^n^i^r 



welfare and permanent prosperity of the state. their bodies, hating the world in which we t h e golden land of America. 



No question is of more far-reaching im- '' ve> an< ^ turning both over to the devil. Na- The Servians have a proverb that is worth 



portance than that of conservation, restoration ture^ting became a part of religious teach- Beating: ^Whoeve, ^^tree^Wb * 



and preservation of the forests. what ha /' been the CO nsequence? In many western Asia and northern Africa, the deso- 



Jackson is the summit city of the southern instances where men have been the most mis- ' ate places of southeastern Europe, the barren 



half of the lower peninsula of Michigan, takenly religious, devotees of a world-hating wastes of Spain, once splendidly prolific, and 



Within or close to the southern line cf Jack- asceticism, nature has been blighted and deso- that historic land formerly "flowing with milk 



c r. . lated the most cruellv bv them Palestine an honey, and later an abomination ot 



son county four important nvers-the Raism f^, Liz Minor cLtce, portions cf Italy desolation/' prove the truth of the proverb a, 



the bt. Joseph, the Kalamazoo and the Grand anc i Spain, Cyprus and Ceylon, the north ol to other people than those of Servia. 



have their origin in an area smaller than that Africa regions once famous for agriculture, B y the destruction and doing nothing for 



of a single township. These high lands and commerce and sylvan attractions, and sup- the replacement cf the forests, man has been 



the streams that flow from thpr 1 fni-pst P ortin g a large population are now classed a "d still is the enemy of nature, and nature 



1 among the most barren portions of the globe, has retaliated by ceasing to minister to human 



protection. In this matter, about twenty In every instance the forests were destroyed needs. 



counties watered by these rivers and their the lungs of nature removed. Such are the lessons of science and of his 



tributaries are directly interested. And yet The relations between the wooded areas of tor y- Even he who runs ma y read - And we 



less than twelve oer cent of the surface cf a coun try and its welfare are too close and are going substantially the same way, not 



T . , . ' , too important to be overlooked and ignored, only here in Jackson county, but all over 



Jackson county is covered with forest trees, Destruction of the forests invites permanent Michigan, and throughout the United States. 



while eighteen per cent of the entire area ot deterioration and disaster. In the interior of I" the larger sense, as well as on the smaller 



France is forest land, and in Germany a still every continent, to get the best agricultural scale, cause and consequence are the same. 



larger proportion of the soil, about one- F esults > * least one-third of the area should The frequent overflows of rivers, occurnn 



be wood and. Mountain sides and summits annually, with the resultant loss of life and 



quarter, has a legally protected forest cover. shou]d never ^f^ Timber shmddb. destruction of property, and the arrest and 



Pause a moment and think of this! The cut to save it and the number of trees never depression of business, are often traceable 



German empire has a total area of 208,830 be reduced. Where stripped the forests should to the extirpation of the forests at their 



square miles; our state of Texas has 265,780 b e restored. Hillsides and summits should be sources and along their courses 



i , reforested Governments ran eneacrp in no Like results nave been realized from strip- 



square miles, 56.950 more than Germany; and ^%1it.dable Tl^tT Privl?e an To-ope P8 the watersheds of New England. 



yet Germany, where the conservation cf the t ive action among land owners, and the gen- Brooks in which ]. fished in my boyhood, 



forests is carefully guarded by the govern- eral and persistent policy of the state should seventy to seventy-five years ago, during the 



ment, had, on June 30, 1909, a population of thus be directed towards saving the country summer months do net now carry a drop of 



63,886000 a gain in one year of 896,000, and j^."* * *^ S a d nt - ted <"i- SftfiE t toTh^cea'n * except^du'r^g 



187i e of averts OMOOO SeFf-p S r e es e ^Fon e re n - Hunfboldt, the great student and lover of the' spring freshets and then they bear away 



qu res the orotection of its forests nature ' once said: " In felling trees growing much of the best of the soil The sources of 





.ric This eminent scientist alld , 



s dose ly true of al the counties of sZhern have added that stripping the sides and sum- from the stains of fallen leaves, now run gray 



Michigan rnits of the hills and mountains causes more with the soil that they transport to the lakes 



France 'has an area of 204,092 square miles, destructive floods in the fertile valleys during m which il s deposited. 



about forty million thrifty inhabitants and the seasons of melting snows and falling rains, Causes and Consequences. 



has eighteen per cent of its surface covered rendering them less fit for agriculture and the W hat has taken place in other lands must 



with forests, many of which have been planted su PPort of a large and contented population. a]so CQme tQ pass herE) un]ess we take thc 



to produce the best agricultural and horti- Avoidable Calamities. nroner ^pn* to save and restore our forests 



rOpel 



nroner pn* o save an res 



cultural results. With about three and a half Experience and history alike teach the same J!. rOpel 



times the area of Michigan, with its forests lesson the wide wor]d * The . Ca se and effect are the same the whole world 



protected from waste and destruction by la-w, , ', .. over. As men sow, so must they reap. Mak- 



France normally raises half as much wheat falls on the barren mountain and steep hill- h)g { , ue allowance for the waste , destruction 



aS nnnnn U " ited States, although we have sides rushes rapidly down the gullies "d and depopBtati on rf countries by war and the 



3,600,000 square miles of territory, and has ravines into the rivers, which overflow their c t 



saved much of her soil from ruin by planting banks causine fearful fl ' d , , nfl _ consequent crushing burdens of taxation, it 



and preserving her forests. ' " Ods and great destrut -- j s now seen , in the true light of economic 



We are confronted by a condition-not a *J? n of Property. Year after year this occurs. history> that the depeopling of the once fairest 



theory The forestry question is not a new The calamity is avoidable if men will co- ^ ortions of the old world the declille in po . 



one. It is as old as civilization. Countries operate with nature in saving and restoring f- i a r 



are prospering the most and have prospered the forests. htlcal and commercial influence of once power- 



the most that are doing the most to save their If the mountains and hills were covered ful a "d progressive nations, the lapse of pros- 



forests from destruction. with trees, the falling rain and melting snow perous communities into squalid and degraded 



t is not the expenditure of millions upon would not form such destructive torrents, for hamlets, because nature's yields were insuffi- 



millions of money every year for coast de- much of the water would be caught and held cient for anything better fruitful yields hav- 



fenses, ships of war, cannon and torpedoes back by the mosses, the leaves, the roots, ing been changed into fruitless solitudes 



that this country needs for its preservation the fallen logs and brush, and would trickle have had the extermination of the forests as 



and welfare; but it does need, first of all, away gradually to the valleys, mitigating both one of the most efficient causes and potent 



forest protection and restoration. There is the severity 'of the spring floods and the sum- agencies in bringing about such lamentable 



peace on the lakes surrounding Michigan; no mer drouths. results. 



money for war needs to be spent on them; It is a pity aye, a calamity so far as the The evils of deforestation have been many 



but the forests of the state need protection welfare of future generations is concerned, times rehearsed. They need repetition. They 



for its future and highest welfare. that an acre of mountain and hill land, from are conspicuous events in the world's history, 



Since the time of Abraham Lincoln no the rock-ribbed Adirondacks of the north to and men are educated by events rather than 



president of the United States has done so the piney woods of Alabama in the south, by arguments. More than a quarter of a cen- 



