MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



17 



i.f ring-tailed pheasants as an amusement for 

 the idle rich. 



Consequently, says the Technical Magazine, 

 when the average layman comes in actual, 

 lirst-hand contact with a real forest ranger, 

 when he learns something of the life and the 

 work of the tall young fellow on the pinto 

 pony, he gets a brand new thrill. For here 

 is a man who is a big-game hunter, frontier 

 sheriff, fire-fighter, Texas ranger and north- 

 west mi mnted policeman, all in one. Any ad- 

 venture you please he can duplicate from his 

 daily reports, set down with a stubby lead 

 pencil at his remote shack in the mountains 

 in about twenty awkward words. And he is 

 working for Us. He takes a serious and reti- 

 cent pride in the fact that whatever may have 

 been charged against other departments of 

 the government, the sincerity and the honesty 

 uf the forest service has never been questioned. 

 About himself he is not talkative. Familiar 

 iation with a range of snow-capped 

 mountains does not promote personal garrul- 

 ity. But he is always ready to express his 

 pride and belief in the Service. Nowhere, out- 

 side of the army, may such fine loyalty such 

 an esprit de crops be found. And he speaks 

 the name of Gifford Pinchot as a veteran of 

 the old guard whispered that of the little 

 corporal. 



Naturally enough the forest ranger is not 

 likely to be over-popular in the vicinity of the 

 hundred square miles of wilderness which he 

 is set to guard. The stockmen whose cattle 

 and sheep and goats have hitherto freely rav- 

 aged the range do not love him. Often enough 

 he is called on to take chances with the hired 

 desperadoes of the cattle barons, sent out by 

 their employers with instructions to "get" the 

 ranger at any cost. Men who are caught steal- 

 ing railroad ties and telephone poles from the 

 national forest do not speak of him with en- 

 thusiastic affection. Water-power site grab- 

 bers and mineral claim thieves, when they find 

 his reports against them and also greatly to 

 their astonishment that he cannot be "reach- 

 ed," fill the papers with attacks charging that 

 he is "blocking the development of our im- 

 perial commonwealth." 



But with the real people, the ranchmen and 

 settlers who have a permanent stake in the 

 country, it is a different story. Almost al- 

 ways he has their confidence and respect. 



FOREST STUDENTS ABROAD. 



Forty-five American students of forestry 

 have recently completed a four-month tour of 

 the forests of Germany. They came from 

 the Biltmore Forest school in North Carolina. 

 They came to Germany just as American 

 students of music come to Berlin or Vienna 

 to study music, because they find there the 

 highest manifestation of applied forestry, just 

 as the music students can find the best the 

 world has to offer in the way of musical in- 

 struction. 



These boys came over to see the best exper' 

 imental plots of American trees in the world; 

 also the oldest forest plantation of American 

 trees in the world. 



The Germans were good foresters before 

 America was discovered. They early saw the 

 possibilities of native American trees, espe- 

 cially of the white pine, and thus today one 

 can find n Germany splendd stands of white 

 pine trees that were planted as long ago as 



1790. 



So the American boys from the American 

 School of Forestry have been busy visiting 

 German forests, giving particular attention to 

 the German way of handling American trees, 

 such as white pine. Douglass fir. Sequoia, wes- 

 tern yellow pine, yellow cedar, Sitka spruce 

 and white fir. The Germans have been busy 

 with all these varieties of trees and their suc- 

 cess in producing dense forests of straight, tall 

 American trees has been such as to afford 

 some astounding spectacles to the average 

 American visitor. 



In the Trippstade forest, in Rhenish Bavaria, 

 there is a forest of white pine, the oldest trees 

 cf which are 120 years old. These trees are 



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 



IIMW from twenty to thirty-three inches in 

 diameter, breast high. This forest covers 

 10,000 acres and its annual sustained yield is 

 .2,280,000 feet, which at an average of about 

 $20 a thousand nets a tidy sum. 



In the Oden-wald there is another white 

 pine forest, also 120 years old. There are 

 other white pine forests near Heidelberg and 

 Isenburg. 



All these forests, under the German system 

 At one time cutting down an oak was con- 

 sidered a great cruelty, for an old writer said 

 that when an oak tree was falling, before it 

 reached the ground, it gave a kind of shriek 

 or groan which could be heard a mile off. 

 This was supposed to be the cry of sorrow of 

 the soul of the tree. 



In England it was once considered verv 

 of forestry, the most scientific in the world. 

 p;ive a steady annual yield of fuel or timber 

 without suffering any deterioration. 



FOREST LEGENDS. 



There is not a family of trees about which 

 so many pretty legends have been told as 

 about the relatives of the king of the forests. 

 In an age almost forgotten some of the 

 people of southern Europe worshipped crea- 

 tions of their imagination. Some of these 

 fanciful beings were supposed to live in foun- 

 tains, brooks, plants, or even stones. Jupiter, 

 the king of these myth creature = . was sup- 

 nosed to prize the oak tree above all others. 

 Tn Greece there was a beautiful osk which 

 the people believed could prophesy comine 

 events. Thev said the "talking oak" could 

 speak the will of Jupiter by rustling its leave? 

 When some of the strange adventurers of 

 that country were to start Tn long errands 

 of danger they first sought the advice of thi? 

 "Oak of Dodona." In those days the greatest 

 honor bestowed on one who saved another's 

 life at the peril <of his own was the plncinT 

 of a crown of oak leaves on the hero's head. 

 Tn the north of Europe the tree was conse- 

 crated to the heathen god Thor. so was sup- 

 posed to be under his special protection. On 

 this account it was considered a sacrilege to 

 harm that tree in even the slightest decree, 

 unlucky to cut down an oak tree, and that 

 for this reason these were spared while '^triers 

 were felled. Many of the oaks were left 

 standing to mark the boundaries of shires 

 or manors. In the rural districts of England 

 the people still celebrate "Oak Apple Day. 1 ' 

 Then every one is expected to wear a sprig of 

 oak leaves with galls, which are the spongv 

 balls frrmed on the leaves by the stinging of 

 an insect. 



This custom is celebrated on May 29, for 

 that was the day when King Charles II. es- 



caped from his enemies by hiding in the thick 

 branches of an oak tree. Perhaps you have 

 seen the royal Charles peering through the 

 branches at Cromwell's soldiers, who wer 

 passing below. In Germany the little folks 

 used to love to find the holes at the base of 

 the old oak trunks, for they believed them 

 to be fairy paths. In Wales some people 

 have even said that they saw rings around 

 the trees where the fairies had enjoyed their 

 midnight dances. 



In our own country the Indians in some 

 localities relied upon the >cak tree as a guide 

 to planting. The red men believed that when 

 the oak leaves were the size of a mouse's ear 

 the time had come to sow the corn. Oak 

 trees grow in nearly all countires, for there 

 are said to be 300 varieties of the family. 

 The United States grows ever fifty species, 

 so some members of the oak family may 

 probably be seen wherever hardwood trees 

 grow. 



CALIFORNIA TREES NOT SO OLD. 



The California big trees only antedate the 

 Christian era about 500 or 600 years, acording 

 to the statements of Prof. Willis L. Jepson 

 of the botany department of the university. 

 Professor Jepson declares that the admiring 

 contemplation of the forest giants by poets 

 and writers has unduly lengthened the age 

 of the big trees. He continues: 



"When one considers that the oldest logged 

 trees were seedlings 500 years before the 

 Christian era it would seem that such a 

 lengthened period of life were sufficient to 

 afford food fcr the reflective mind. But those 

 popular writers, and likewise the poets, whose 

 figures are based solely upon an admiring con- 

 templation of the bulk and stateliness of these 

 forest giants, are not satisfied with attributing 

 to them age less than from 5,000 to 6,000 

 years.'' 



The university botanist declared that the 

 sequoias were the only survivors of a large 

 family of trees, fos-sils alone of which remain. 

 Untold centuries ago, he declared, their 

 species were growing on the mountain sides 

 >f Alaska and Asia, and only the California 

 species of the family is alive today. 



The despised Digger Indian of the northern 

 part rf the state is given credit by Pr 

 Jepson for the development of some rf the 

 finest groves of the state. He declared that 

 these people, few of whom are now alive of 

 many thousands, had a forestry system of 

 their own, which accounts fcr the remarkable 

 growth of some kinds of trees in the state. 

 San Francisco Call. 



