12 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



STATE FORESTRY RESERVE. 



Deputy County Treasurer B. W. Wright 

 of Marquette county has received notice that 

 the state of Michigan has withdrawn inmi 

 settlement and >et aside lor forestry purpo.-- 

 es a considerable acreage of Marqueue county 

 lands, comprising a part of the land that was 

 deeded to the state last Septemher, after hav- 

 ing been delinquent for taxes for several 

 years. Tracts of considerable size have been 

 set apart for the same purpose in other up- 

 per peninsula counties. 



In Marquette ci.unty, the lands set aside are 

 as follows: Tilden township Township 46- 

 37, parts of sections 31, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 

 32, 33, 34 and 35. Ely township Township 

 46-28, parts of sections 3, 4, 6. 8, 9 and 10. 

 Humboldt towns'.iip Township 45-29, part ot 

 section 12, and part of section 16, township 

 46-29. Republic township Township 46-29, 

 part of section 17. 



Just what use will be made of these lands 

 by the state does not yet appear, but the ac- 

 tivity of the state forestry commission in other 

 parts of the state makes it a good guess that 

 in the near future a scientific attempt will be 

 made toward the reforestation of the terri- 

 tory. Studies in reforestation are now being 

 pursued by the commission, but to date little 

 actual work has been done, although the com- 

 misien is showing an aggressiveness which 

 augurs great things in the not distant future. 



TO STOP LAND GRAFT. 



To halt alleged graft that has been secured 

 from land deals in Roscommoii county by 

 1'hicago parties, who have been operating for 

 several years, Auditor General Fuller lifes 

 deeded 4,058 lots in that county to the state 

 land department, which will be placed by the 

 public domain commission in the state forest 

 reserve. 



According to reports given out in the audi- 

 tor general's department, Chicago real estate 

 operators have dealt extensively in Roscom- 

 moii lands for years. The property has been 

 hi. tight, platted and sold to buyers living in 

 distant parts under the representation that 

 their holdings covered good resort lands. The 

 buyers on investigation have in almost every 

 instance found that they had been buncoed, 

 that the land they had bought was practically 

 worthless for the purposes for which they 

 purchased it. They have then allowed the 

 taxes to become delinquent and the property 

 to revert to the Plate. Nearly 2,000 lots were 

 platted and sold in this manner by one Chi- 

 cago concern alone, if is said. 



The state has spent $9,003 advertising tax 

 sales of property in Roscommon county that 

 had been purchased at from $3 to $5 an acre 

 and sold to unsuspecting purchasers at a much 

 larger figure. 



PUBLIC DOMAIN LANDS. 



Figures which have been issued following 

 the trip which the public domain commission 

 made a short time ago gives an interesting 

 sidelight on the business which Michigan has 

 done in the selling of public lands during the 

 last six and cue-half years. 



All in all the figures show that from Jan. 

 1, 1904, to the present time, the state had dis- 

 posed of 949,655 acres of land amounting in 

 value to $1,569,633.98. Of this amount $227,- 

 377.07 was received from the sale of lots in 

 cities, towns and villages. 



By far the largest sale of public lands was 

 made in 1907 when the state disposed of 235,- 

 133.74 acre at a net price of $224,539.91. The 

 price, however, was extremely low as is shown 

 by the figures, being less than $1 an acre. 



Since the value of public lands appears to 

 have gone up and it is said that this is espe- 

 cially true in the upper peninsula where land 

 which was mice considered worthless, in as 

 much as it had been cleared of its timber is 

 now bringing a good price from farmers. 



During the six months which have passed 

 this year, the state has sold 60,380.44 acres at 

 a net price of $159,099.84. A comparison of 

 the amount of land sold and the price received 



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 



in the two instances referred to, shows that 

 the land is bringing more than twice as much 

 as it did in 1907, and the department claims 

 that the demand is heavier than ever. 



BEWAILS FOREST DEVASTATION. 



President Ira Remsen, of Johns H'opkins 

 I 'Diversity, Baltimore, addressing a confer- 

 ence of the Society of Chemical Industry at 

 Glasgow, made a violent attack on American 

 Sunday newspapers. The onslaught arose 

 from Prof Remsen's indignation at the rapid 

 and ruthless destruction of forests in the 

 United States for the manufacture of. wood 

 pulp. He said: 



"This is, perhaps largely the result of a de- 

 praved state of min-d of the people, who seem 

 to delight in the masses of trash served up 

 in the newspapers, especially the Sunday 

 newspapers. I am filled with shame when I 

 think of it. But this depraved state of mind 

 is so closely connected with the forest prob- 

 lem that honesty compels me to mention that 

 many newspapers, even Sunday ones, exert 

 a wholesome influence. Others, however, tend 

 only to lower the mental and moral condition 

 of their readers and these papers have the 

 largest size and ihe largest circulation and 

 therefore affect the forest problem most." 



SEVENTY ACRES PER WEEK. 



We asked A. Blanchard for an average esti- 

 mate of the lumber cut in Onaway per week, 

 and he said the three mills cut about 800.000 

 feet per week, and that this timber would rep- 

 resent from 65 to 70 acres of land that it be- 

 ing cut over every week. 



This wonderful slaughter of the forest 

 readily shows the amount of land that is con- 

 stantly being placed on the market, and how 

 soon Northern Michigan will, comparatively 

 speaking, be a treeless section. 



Seventy acres per week is only a fraction, 

 for the mills in t very other town are sawing 

 their pro ratia and thus the need of active 

 work on the part of the development bureaus 

 is very 'great importance and should be pushed 

 along as rapidly as possible, for soon to the 

 farms and not the timber will the towns look 

 to for maintainance. Onaway Inter-Lake. 



WOULD SAVE OLD TREES. 



Gutzon Borglum at the instance of the 

 Parks and Playgrounds Association of New 

 York City, has begun a taxpayer's suit to res- 

 train the city from developing further the 

 Riverside Drive extension along and through 

 Fort Washington Park under the contract 

 that 1'omuxh President Ahearn and the old 

 Board of Estimate made last year with John 

 C. Rogers. Mr. Borglum's suit alleges ille- 

 gality of the contract and excessive and un- 



necosary cost, bill back of this is the conten- 

 tion that in>tead of developing the park as 

 the auiitracl purports to do the pro>ecution 

 of the proposed work would cau.se needless 

 destruction there. Mr. Burglum is one of the 

 directors of the Parks and Playgrounds Asso-' 

 ciation. 



lie says that the plans for the work con- 

 tracted l\,r were prepared for the Borough 

 president by a consulting engineer appointed 

 by him, without consultation with the park 

 department or us landscape architect. ' The 

 plan in the contract, he says, involves the des- 

 truction of about i'.OO very line elms, maples 

 and chestnuts more than two feet in diameter 

 and more than fifty years old. 



NEW YORK STATE RECOVERS LANDS. 



Attorney-General O'Malley of New York 

 state ha.s received notice that the Appellate 

 Division has unanimously affirmed the order 

 of the Special Term vacating and setting aside 

 the stipulation entered into in 1904 between 

 Dewitt C. Middleton as State Forest, Fish 

 and Game Commissioner and the Santa Clara 

 Lumber Company. This stipulation and 

 judgment provided that an action which was 

 brought by the Forest, Fish and Game Com- 

 missioner to recover the value of trees cut by 

 the Santa Clara Lumber Company from lands 

 held by the state should be dismissed on the 

 merits and that the title to the lands from 

 which the trees were taken, comprising a 

 large and valuable tract in the forest reserve, 

 should be conf.imed in the defendant as 

 against the state, and also gave the defendant 

 perpetual valuable water rights and rights of 

 way acros state lands. 



The decision will restore to the people pro- 

 perty of great value which the Attorney-Gen- 

 eral contended had been fraudulently and un- 

 lawfully transferred from them to the Santa 

 Clara Lumber Company. 



Michigan Forestry Notes 



Great damage has been 1 done in Michigan 

 this month by forest fires, the upper peninsula 

 suffering the most severely. The need of 

 better fire fighting facilities to check forest 

 fires becomes more apparent with each fresh 

 disaster. 



Xorway has a ', ery stringent and effective 

 forestry law which requires that for every 

 tree cut down tin- lumberman must plant an- 

 other one to take its place. The penalty for 

 violating this law is a fine for the first offense, 

 imprisonment for the second, and retirement 

 from the lumber business for the third. This 

 makes American conservation look tame. 



