12 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



j'.iou per year, had authority over the supervi- 

 sor* who were thus once more legislated into 

 the lire warden job. The earlier law was re- 

 peated in its main features, but the people 

 were to receive pay for Fighting lires and tin- 

 sum total spent in any one town sh. aid not 

 exceed $50 in any one year, so that if $4!i are 

 once spent the people must be sent home be- 

 cause there is no more money available. Of 

 this law the state land commissioner himself 

 in a public meeting declared that it was not 

 worth the paper it was printed on. In 1907 

 the power of the land commissioner was trans 

 ferred to the state game warden, he was made 

 fire and game warden, the idea being that 

 this office was equipped by law with deputies 

 scattered over the state, that it was more a 

 police body and thus would do better work. 

 But -when the writer asked -a deputy game 

 warden, Sept. 11, 1908, if he had any instruc- 

 tions, the reply was in the 'negative. Though 

 the whole country was on lire and though 

 every supervisor was by law compelled to 

 fight, it was deemed unnecessary even to issue 

 instructions. Again: Xo officer is obliged to 

 do his duty. 



The utter uselessness of these fire warden 

 laws is amply proven by the fires of 1906 and 

 1908 in Michigan, by the tires in Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota and New York. Aside from the 



Michigan Forestry Association 



HAS FOR ITS OBJECT 



The modification of our laws which will enable the holding and 

 reforesting of forest lands. 



The protection of forest property against fire and trespass. The 

 disposition and management of our state lands. 



Every citizen should be interested in this work and join the Asso- 

 ciation. Membership fee $1.00 per year, including yearly subscription 

 to Michigan Roads and Forests, the official organ of the Association. 



PROF. HUBERT ROTH, Secretary, 



Ann Arbor, Michigan 



small educational value of the posters, it is of timber lands was to be found, reckoning forests, timber to be cut from it when it has 



doubtful if these laws ever prevented a fire, from those in the state of Washington north- reached sufficient growth, posibly half a cen- 



or put one out. The pay provision in these ward through British Columbia and Alaska, tury hence, only under intelligent supervision, 



laws is generally conceded to be a mere temp- But he limited his statement to North Amer- Most productive farms would also be greatly 



tation to build enough fire to get the state lca > f r he added -that, in his opinion, the larg- improved by intelligent tree planting, as wind 



est Ji'rest in the. World occupied the valley breaks, on" steep hillslopes, along water 



money. 



promotion 



have so far been chiefly along two lines: 



The creation of forest commissions and of p u ted the t" 



Exception was immediately taken to this 

 statement ' 



expecting too much to 

 iwners of large 

 but little agricul- 

 tural value could be induced to reforest and 

 maintain them for the benefit of future gen- 



late state foresters, to -gather and distribute ^,'w V, " '? e , rations - Such w " rk lllst necessarily be un- 



information, make propaganda for forestry ^ of he NHe t 't h f > headquart- dertaken mainly for the common public good. 



and act as advisor to the legislature or gov of the Z imbe on rt S?k A' an< - those e state should enter upon it, broadly and 

 ernment of the state their estimates C 1 A? ' AcCOrdlng f to intelligently, and laws should be enacted that 



The encouragement to plant 'trees- or main- est region not 'less than 'iOOO miles' h? length" T''l f"' 1 " 1 ' 170 C U . ntie ^ alul tow ?.sWps to un- 

 tain forests by offering a bonus, or exemption from north to south and of vast although T , K r""' ' M ljres ,? rvatlon f. Crests 



of the plantations from taxation. These laws fully known width from east to west I5is "'', ' '"' .T^ ^"" y ^T" Clt!C ? : ""' 

 have usually been hedged in with numerous cussion in which the evfdence afforded bv , V1 'fl are ho . '. uners of adjacent forest 

 useless conditions and are generally consid- travels and surveys was freely cited ,ed Iands '/. rt ; nl , whl ' h large revenue, are derived, 



ered unconstitutional. Their value has been favorable to the defender cf the Am, and whu ' h '?'' " ni - l , K ' lfy , , a " d "'""'" l " 



educational, perhaps, but otherwise they have forests. ' nldn 'P wash of soil, and ,n other ways are 



been of practically no use. These laws have Later in the dav the 



__,, ,* , The Times-Herald especially asks the atten- 



f its farmer readers to this subject, 

 is of much importance to them. Pine, 

 spruce and fir trees are easily propagated and 

 set in rows near together, attain suf- 

 l within a few years to protect 

 the soil and prevent wash, while within fifteen 

 or twenty years cuttings of considerable value 

 PROPAGATION AND PRESER- can he made from them in the necessary pro- 



neither planted ncr preserved. placed in another light by a member who *s 



The state action, creating state forests or able to speak from knowledge of sti'Il -Mother 



parks and providing an organization for their great forest region of the globe This'tren 



care has been of great and lasting value, and man gave a vivid picture of the iras 



may well be regarded as the only one of the and urmans, the pine, larch and ced-ir' for, s' 



several state efforts which has resulted iivun- of Siberia. ' "ent_ 



qualified success. Then come -first New York, 

 Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Then also the 

 smaller attempts of Minnesota, Michigan, 

 Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and 

 Indiana, etc. all of which have been of value. 



VATION. 



The question cf the conservation of n-iti -1 



These state forests speak for themselves, they resources was brought prominently before the 

 are an object lesson and form the nucleus of people of the United States by President 

 what some day must be the principal line of Roosevelt, national policies calculated to 



cess of thinning. 



Let Michigan adopt, at an early day, a com- 

 prehensive policy of forest propagation and 

 preservation. Port Huron Times-Herald. 



state activity with regard to forests. 



serve 



mountain forests and retain, ' for 'The 

 common public benefit, water p, wers. mineral 



GREAT FORESTS OF THE WORLD. 



FORESTRY SUMMER SCHOOL. 



.A forestry summer school on the shores of 



Where is the greatest forest in the world? Much yet remains to be done 



deposists and other natural resorces 



privately appropriated have been 'ad ted Hi 88ns . lk '' '." Roscommon county, was made 



e<l- a Dossibilitv tor the Michigan Agricultural 



Reforestation 



globe was under discussion, and the purpose that it'will doubtless -h'r 

 of the question was to show where the great as practicable 

 forest tracts of the world are situated. 



One member, replying off-hand, was in- 

 clined to 

 tract of 

 river, in 

 extending 

 rador: a 

 in length 

 in width norm and s, uui. p Oses tha , sh()ul( , 



A professor imm the Smithsonian 'Institute treat similar land 

 rejoined that a much larger- continuous area spruce and fir and 



great rivers, \vhere the .Michigan public domain comnns- 



out as rapidly sion has placed :;s.()l)n acres of the variously 



,, , , timbered state forest reserve at tin '' 



should not be c nlmcd to of the 



the Germans t ,-,1. Vale, 'or. has : been added to th* forestry 



statl at M. ,\. ('.. will aid in the instruction 

 as permanent -work in the- north. 



