MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



11 



THE FORESTS OF 



THE UNITED STATES 



(Selections from Circular 171, U. S. Forest 

 Service.) 



What Forests Do. 



Our industries which subsist wholly or main- 

 ly upon wood pay the wages of more than 

 1,500,000 men and women. 



Forests not only grow timber, but they hold 



the soil and they conserve the streams. They 



abate the wind and give protection from ex- 



e heat or cold. Woodlands make for 



ber. health, and happiness of each citizen 



and of the nation. 



The fish which live in forest waters furnish 



each ytar Si 1.000,000 worth of food, and not 



than half as much is furnished by the 



which could not exist without the forest. 



What We Have. 



Our forest.- now cover 550,000,000 acres, or 

 ' -fourth of the United States. The 

 >rests covered net less than 850,000,- 



000 acres. 



publicly owned contain one-fifth of 



mber standing. Forests privately owned 



iin at least four-fifths of the standing 



timber. The timber privately owned is not 



times that publicly owned, but it 



i.erally mere valuable. 



_ Forer-try i- ro\v practiced on 70 per cent of 

 the forests publicly owned and on less than 



1 per cent of the forest^ privately owned, or 

 ' n . i;!y ! ;.'>. r cent of the total area of forests. 



What is Produced. 



The yearly growth of wood in our forests 

 average more than 12 cubic feet per 

 acre. Th i total yearly growth of less 



than 7,000,000,000 cubic feet. 



Nearly all i.ur native commercial trees grow 



much faster than those rf Europe. We already 



t timber in twenty to thirty years. 



timber in twenty-five to thirty-five years, 



tie timber in thirty-five to forty years, and saw 



timber in thirty to seventy-five years. 



We have 200.000,000 acres of mature forests, 

 in which yearly growth is balanced by decay: 

 250,000.000 acres partly cut over or burned 

 ; restocking naturally with enough 

 reduce a merchantable crop; 

 "and 100.000.000 acres cut over and burned 

 n which young growth is either whol- 

 ly lacking or too scanty to make merchantable 

 timber. 



What is Used. 



\Ve take from our forests yearly, including 

 waste in loggine and in manufacture, 20,000,- 

 000.000 cubic feet of wocd. 



\Ve use in a normal year 90.000,000 cords 

 cf firew< od. 40.000,000,000 board feet of lumber, 

 118,000.000 hewn ties, 1,500,000,0000 staves, 

 over 133,000,000 sets of heading, nearly 50,000,- 

 000 barrel hoops, 3,000,000 cords of native 

 pulp wood, 165,000,000 cubic feet of round mine 

 timbers, and 1,250.000 ccrds of wood for dis- 

 tillation. 



What is Wasted. 



Forest fires burn over millions of acres and 

 destroy billions of feet of timber annually. 

 The young grewth destroyed by fire is worth 

 far more than the merchantable timber burn- 

 ed. 



One-fourth of the standing timber is left 

 herwise 1. st in logging. The boxing of 

 longleaf pine for turpentine has destroyed 

 one-fifth of the forests worked. The loss in 

 the mill is from one-third to two-thirds of the 

 timber sawed. The loss in the mill product 

 through seasrning and fitting for use is from 

 rne- = eventh to one-fourth. Great damage is 

 done by insects to forests and forest products. 

 An average of only 320 feet of lumber is used 

 for each 1,000 feet which stood in the forest. 



Where We Stand. 



We take from cur forests each year, not 

 counting the loss by fire, three times their 

 yearly growth. We take 36 cubic feet per 

 acre for each 12 cubic feet grown; we take 



230 cubic feet per capita, while Germany uses 

 37 cubic feet and France 25 cubic feet. 



We invite by overtaxation the misuse of 

 our forests. We should plant, to protect farms 

 from wind and to make stripped or treeless 

 lands productive, an area larger than that cf 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia com- 

 bined. But so far, lands successfully planted 

 to trees (naUe a total area smaller than Rhode 

 Island. And year by year, through careless 

 cutting and fires, we lower the capacity of 

 existing forests to produce their like again, 

 or totally destroy them. 



The condition cf the world supply of timber 

 makes us already dependent upon what we 

 produce. We send out of our country one 

 and one-half times as much timber as we bring 

 in. Except for finishing woods, relatively in- 

 significant in quantity, we must grow our own 

 supply or go without. 



What Should Be Done. 



We should stop- forest fires. By careful log- 

 ging we should both reduce waste and leave 

 cut-over lands productive. We should make the 

 timber logged go further by preservative 

 treatment and by avoiding needless loss in 

 the woods, the mill,, the factory, and in use. 

 We should plant up those lands now treeless 

 which will be most useful under forest. We 

 should so adjust taxation that cut-over lands 

 can be held for a second crop. We should 

 recognize that it costs to grow timber as well 

 as to log and saw it. 



We should continue- and perfect, by state 

 and nation, the preservation by use of forests 

 already publicly owned; and we should ex- 

 tend it to ether mountain forests more val- 

 uable for the permanent benefit of the many 

 than for the temporary profit for a few. 



For each million acres of forest in public 

 ownership over 4,000,000 are privately owned. 

 The conservation of public forests is the 

 smaller task before the nation and the states. 

 The larger task is to induce private forest 

 owners, which means 3,000,000 men, to take 

 care of what they have, and to teach wood 

 users, which means everyone, how not to 

 waste. 



If these things are done, they will conserve 

 our streams as well as our forests. If they 

 are not dene, the usefulness of our streams 

 will decrease no less than the usefulness of 

 our forests. 



Where We Might Stand. 



By reasonable thrift we can produce a con^ 

 slant timber supply beyond our present need, 

 and with it conserve the usefulness of our 

 streams for irrigation, water supply, naviga- 

 tion, and power. 



Under right management our forests will 

 yield over four times as much as now. We 

 can reduce waste in the woods and in the mill 

 at least one-third, with present as well as 

 future profit. We can perpetuate the naval- 

 stores industry. Preservative treatment will 

 reduce by one-fifth the quantity of timber 

 used in the water or in the ground. We can 

 practically stop forest fires at a total yearly 

 cost of one-fifth the value of the standing tim- 

 ber burned each year. 



We shall suffer for timber to meet our needs 

 until our forests have had time to grow again. 

 But if we act vigorously and at once, we shall 

 escape permanent timber scarcity. 



PUTS A CRIMP IN SPECULATION. 



What will eventually mean the curtailing 

 of one of the rank frauds that have been in 

 vcgue in Michigan for many years has been 

 nipped by the public domain commission. 



Ten or 13 years ago a certain Chicago firm 

 purchased from the state several hundred acres 

 of land in Roscommon county, which they 

 afterwards platted into lots 20-300 feet. This 

 land, which cost the schemers from $3 to $4 

 per acre, was f.,r the most part situated some 

 distance from any town. From 20 to 30 lots 

 were platted from each acre of land. In some 

 sections of the county there are sites which 

 are either owned by private individuals or by 

 the state which are really pretty places and 



some fine houses are situated on them. These 

 places were photographed, and it is alleged 

 that in selling the lots the promoters of the 

 scheme used the photographs to deceive buy- 

 ers. Purchasers who bit on the proposition, 

 and, according to Secretary Carton of the 

 commission, there were hundreds of them, 

 soon found that they had been "done," and of 

 course let the lots revert back to the state 

 for taxes. Xow there are some 20,000 to 

 30,000 of these lots that have been deeded by 

 the auditor-general's department back to the 

 state for non-payment of taxes. 



Secretary Carton proposed at a recent meet- 

 ing to put all this land into . the state re- 

 serve, 'thereby faking "it cff the -market, for, it 

 is generally understood that the same schem- 

 ers who originally purchased the land are 

 figuring on buying it back again. In order 

 to frustrate their scheme Secretary Carton's 

 proposition will be adopted by the commis- 

 sion. ' The company, it is said, have made 

 thousands of dollars in the transaction. The 

 cost to the state, however, has been consid- 

 erable, for every description has had to be 

 advertised for the past five years, and it has 

 cost the state nearly $40 per acre already, 

 and they again have the same land on their 

 hands that originally, as stated, was sold from 

 $3 to $4 per acre. 



It is certainly refreshing to see the St4te 

 take its stand en the right side irl this matter 

 of cheap, non-agricultural lands. 



Secretary Carton and the Commission are 

 to -be congratulated? for trrey are right and 

 absolutely right. There is not only every 

 contemptible form of land deal .involved in the 

 handling of these cheap lands',' but there is 

 every appearance that s&me of this "lake lot," 

 etc., business was inaugurated solely for the 

 benefit of the, papers which did the advertis- 

 ing. And it is relief to see the State at last, 

 adopt the right policy and withdraw from its 

 former position of helping the "deal" alcng. 

 The new policy win work for true develop- 

 ment, while the old policy only worked mis- 

 chief and left the 'lands idle and waste. 



FORESTRY FOR PROFIT. 



M. W. Wentworth, steward of the Sanitar- 

 ium of Battle Creek, has embarked in an ex- 

 tensive experiment in forestry. He has bought 

 the Sanitarium farm of 200 acres at the south 

 end of Lake Goguac, formerly known as the 

 Gregory homestead, and will plant 10,000 trees. 

 The varieties that will be planted are the 

 black locust, the catalpa, and the spruce. 



The spruce will be grown for Christmas 

 tree's and the locust for fence posts and rail- 

 road ties. The catalpa and locust will be 

 grown on the marsh land of which there is 

 quite an extensive area adjacent to the lake. 

 This will utilize land that has hitherto been 

 useless for cultivation. Mr. Wentworth is the 

 second person in that section of Michigan to 

 make the experiment. 



The first person to make an experiment in 

 this line was Clayton Strait of the township 

 of Emmett, Calhoun county, who three years 

 ago set out 300 sweet chestnut trees on a 

 piece of land on the shores of Beadle lake. 

 The trees were obtained from the Michigan 

 Agricultural College and at that time were 

 only a few inches in height. They have nearly 

 all lived and are now from five to six feet in 

 height. So far Mr. Strait's experiment has 

 been a success. 



The experiment of Mr. Wentworth will be 

 watched with much interest, as it is on a much 

 larger scale than Mr. Strait's. If the black 

 locust and catalpa will grow in marsh land 

 there are thousands of acres in Michigan that 

 can be devoted to tree growing. 



The Calumet township, Houghton county, 

 beard has decided to construct a highway in 

 the Trap Rock valley. A committee has also 

 visited the proposed route of a road along the 

 lake shore, and an estimate of the cost of such 

 improvement will be furnished the board. The 

 Trap Rock road is about two miles in length, 

 and it is expected that the highway can be 

 completed during the summer. 



