10 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



WHAT THE STATES SHOULD DO TO 

 PERPETUATE THE FORESTS. 



Professor Roth. 



In discussing the subject of Forestry, as the 

 care of the wocds of our country, the ques- 

 tions constantly cpme up: 



"Why do you ask for legislation and other 

 state action?" 



"\Vhat is there about the business of lor- 

 estry that justifies such action or makes such 

 action desirable or necessary?" 



"Is forestry of such great importance to the 

 people at large, or is it such a peculiar busi- 

 ness that it cannot get en without state 

 action?" 



These questions are pertinent. They must 

 be answered before suggestions for state ac- 

 tion can be considered. Briefly, it can be said 

 that forestry asks for no bonus or special 

 favor; it is an honest, paying business and 

 merely asks for the "square deal." Forestry 

 is of vast importance to the welfare of Our 

 people; it ranks a good second to agriculture 

 in most of our timber and mountain states. 



Some of the laws of the states of this Union 

 are positively inimical to forestry. They 

 make forestry as a business impossible, chiefly 

 'through unjust taxation and an utter lack of 

 protection of rural property. These laws were 

 mostly framed when the very word forestry 

 was still unknown in this country, and there- 

 fore, without any bad intention, forestry was 

 left out of consideration as an important in- 

 dustry. 



The following somewhat categorical state- 

 ment will help to make this clear: 



Reasons For State Action The Importance of 

 Forestry to the People. 



1. The Timber Supply. The rapid develop- 

 ment of the iron and steel industry and the 

 substitution of metal, stone, brick, tile and 

 cement for wood somewhat misled most 

 people into the belief that the importance of 

 timber in the household of the nation was on 

 the decline, that we would soon be able to do 

 without wood and hence go without forests. 

 The fallacy of this notion will be illustrated 

 in another chapter on this subject. We use 

 more wood than ever, and we now realize as 

 never before that wood is a fundamental neces- 

 sity to most of our industries today, and that, 

 with the depletion of coal and iron (both in 

 the reasonable future) wood again must form 

 one of the principal bases of man's comfort 

 and his very existence. For timber may be 

 grown always, providing we do not destroy 

 and lay waste the earth beyond the point of 

 recovery; but coal and metals are mined and 

 sooner or later give out. 



As stated elsewhere, in Europe, where the 

 per capita consumption of wood is only about 

 one-sixth what it is with us, every state that 

 has less than 35 per cent of its land in forest 

 is an importer of wood and timber. 



The price of timber for more than 100 

 years has been more uniform and has increased 

 more regularly than that of any other raw 

 material. This is true not only of our country, 

 but is true of all parts of the civilized world. 



Wood is used so universally in every house- 

 hold that excessive prices in wood, like ex- 

 cessive prices in bread, react at once seriously 

 on the welfare of all the people. 



2. The Use of Land. In the old world, as 

 well as with us, millions of acres of land that 

 were once cleared of forest and tilled have 

 been abandoned by the farmer. In the New 

 England States alone the census of 1900 

 found that between 1880 and 1900 fully 40 

 per cent of all tilled land had been abandoned. 

 The tendency of modern agriculture is to farm 

 intensively all good lands and lands favorably 

 situated (about cities), and to withdraw 

 the poor lands. The importance of this phase 

 of the problem varies with the different states. 

 It means little to Iowa, where 95 per cent 

 of all land is good agricultural land; but it 

 means much to the lake states, the Appalach- 

 ian nnd New England districts and the south. 

 It means still more to the states of the great 



mountain region of the west, where many 

 millions of acres are at too high an altitude to 

 warrant any farming, even if it were o'therwise 

 possible. All of these lands can and should 

 be occupied by the forest. And by the use of 

 these vast areas of land the forest will make 

 a crop which will mean hundreds of millions 

 of dollars to the people of these several states. 



3. Forest and Water Supply. The states of 

 the irrigating west depend to a large degree 

 on the forest to secure to them the water 

 supply on which their agriculture is based. 



But even the farmer in the central states 

 experiences a continental climate where, every 

 year, hot dry spells, accompanied by severe 

 drying west winds, injure or destroy part of 

 the crops. A well distributed forest cover is 

 the only remedy, aside from tillage of the soil, 

 which can ameliorate these conditions. It is 

 demonstrated by experiment that this action 

 is of value, and there is today no doubt but 

 what the presence of such a forest cover fre- 

 quently decides between a modest crop and an 

 utter failure. It is here not a matter of heavy 

 precipitation or other extraordinary action; it 

 is merely the difference between much dry 

 wind blowing freely over the land and the 

 same dry wind checked locally from field to 

 field by the scattered wood lots and the larger 

 bodies of timber. 



The influence of the forest cover on the flow 

 of streams and the general distribution of the 

 water supply of any region is today universally 

 conceded. But such an influence is of enor* 

 mous value to the people of most of our 

 states. Nor is this all; this value is on the 

 increase; the development of water power and 

 water transportation, going on all over the 

 civilized world, are making this action of the 

 forest one of the first magnitude. 



4. Forest and Erosion. While practically 

 contained and assumed in the action of forest 

 in the use of land and in its action on water 

 supply, yet this action is of such fundamental 

 importance to every people in every state that 

 it well deserves special consideration. The 

 farmer of Iowa or Mississippi may care noth- 

 ing for the forest to supply him with timber; 

 he may be indifferent as regards his crop or 

 water supply; but he cannot afford to see his 

 land washed away, gradually and steadily go- 

 ing toward the sea. The injury due to gullv- 

 ing and washing of our lands is still too little 

 appreciated. Even here in the lake states, 

 where we have always been told about the 

 low gradients of our river systems and the 

 consequent inability to erode, we lose thou- 

 sands of acres of fertile land every year, and 

 we lose the choice top soil of many thou- 

 sands more. This loss is enormous; it is per- 

 manent, it makes for waste land and for desert. 

 The forest cover, properly distributed, is the 

 only practical measure to prevent it. With 

 the experience of the Mediterranean countries 

 and the sad stories of the Chinese empire, re- 

 lating two thousand years of steady deteriora- 

 tion of millions of acres of land, and the grad- 

 ual driving from the land of millions of 

 people, and the final dissolution of once power- 

 ful nations surely, with all this before us as 

 an open book, we, the enlightened people of 

 the twentieth century, have little excuse for 

 our indifference. 



5. Forest and Aesthetics. Man loves the 

 woods. The throng of the city on a summer 

 day is not about the piles of hewn stone and 

 brick, or brown stone fronts it is out to the 

 woods to enjoy the shade and beauty of the 

 trees. This is not new; it is not due to school 

 influences or any other artificial means. It 

 is instinctive, rooted in the very nature of man. 

 The traveler who finds southern Michigan to- 

 day a "pretty country" does not mention the 

 red barns, nor the "bill-posted back yards 

 which the towns have a way of offering to the 

 passing train. It is the woods, and the woods 

 chiefly, which make this southern Michigan, 

 like many other parts of the union, attractive 

 to him. _ The aesthetic value of the wood lots 

 jf Michigan is worth many millions of dollars 

 and is capable of being destroyed by the re- 

 moval of these woods. 



<i. Forest and Ethics. Generally we preach 

 one code of ethics for the' ordinary man, an- 

 other for the "extraordinary" man, either on 

 top cr at the bottom of society, and usually 

 no code at all for the state or commonwealth. 

 We are getting over this Machiavellian habit, 

 and surely, if it is proper for the ordinary man 

 10 leave his children a decent inheritage, to 

 leave the farm as good as he found it, it is 

 equally much the concern of the state, of we, 

 the people of today, who make up this state, 

 to leave it in as hospitable 1 and as beautiful 

 a condition as we found it, and to avoid at 

 least serious devastation. The devastation of 

 the forest cover is one of the most sericus as 

 well as one of the most conspicuous of all. 

 The logging of the mature white pine here in 

 Michigan was good, sound business; the con- 

 version of millions of acres of forest into 

 blackened stump waste was a serious nnd un- 

 warranted mistake; the continued burning and 

 devastation of thr-r same lands by a prosper- 

 ous people of nearly three millions is nothing 

 less than a crime. 



(To Be Continued.) 



FOREST FIRES. 



The following "catchy" way of putting 

 things is resorted to by the authorities of 



California. The brief statement is printed in 

 small, letter-envelope form and is also put up 

 as notices in the woods: 



California sells over $20,000,000 worth of 

 lumber a year. Of this $14.000.000 is received 

 by emplnyi's. who put it into local circulation. 



You share it. 



About a billion feet is destroyed by fire in 

 California every year. If manufactured, it 

 would bring in $15,000.000. On every thou- 

 sand feet burned the stumpage owner loses at 

 least $3, but the community loses $8 in wages. 



Timber means pay checks to support all 

 industries, but burned timber pays no wages. 

 Timber pays taxes in ycur county; if it burns 

 up, another kind of property has to pay the 

 difference. Help prevent forest fires and you'll 

 make more money. So will your children. 



Care with small fires is the best way to pre- 

 vent big ones. Therefore, you are urged to 

 observe the following simple rules: 



Don't toss away burning matches or 

 tobacco! 



Don't make a camp fire in leaves, rotten 

 weed, or against logs, where it may spread 

 or you can't be sure it is out! 



Always clear away all inflammable material 

 before building your camp fire! 



Never leave a fire until it is out! 

 Don't burn brush, grass or slashings without 

 a permit from a fire warden. 



Don't operate an engine using fuel other 

 than oil without having it equipped with a 

 spark arrester. 



Put out any fire you find if you can. If 

 you can't, notify a fire warden or other public 

 officer, or the landowner. Remember that any 

 little fire may become a big one if left alone. 



All these rules but the first and last are 

 LAW. and violation of them is punishable. 

 Next to water, earth is the best thing to put 

 out fire with. The best tools for fighting fire 

 are the shovel, ax, mattock and wet sacks. 



Planting and setting out cuttings has been 

 begun by Supervisor S. M. Higgins of the 

 United States forestry department on the 

 Michigan forest reserve near Oscoda. Eigh- 

 teen thousand Norway cuttings and 25.000 

 Ni.rway poplar cuttings will be set out. and 

 thirty acres will be planted to white pine. 

 Raising white pine, our most valuable timber 

 tree, from the seed is a new departure in the 

 forestrv methods of this country. Owing to 

 the failure of lumbermen to appreciate the 

 value of the seed bearing cone and therefore 

 neglecting to harvest it, the seed is imported. 



