MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



13 



CONSERVATION. 



By C. S. Harrison, President of the Nebraska 

 Park and Forestry Association. 



An address delivered at the summer meeting 



of the Nebraska Horticultural Society. 

 When the Creator turned this great land 

 over to us it was a regicn of surpassing beau- 

 ty. For long millenniums He was at work, 

 employing the highest art and skill for its 

 adornment. The whole country was land- 

 scaped on a most magnificent scale and with 

 'a far-reaching forethought for the future. 

 Everything was provided for. It was the 

 patient work of ages to spread a thin layer 

 of soil over the rocks and on the hills and 

 mountain sides, and then fasten it there with 

 trees, shrubs, and grasses. Mighty rivers 

 flowed to the sea. fed by thousands of streams 

 which -ang merrily on their way. These 

 stream? were carefully protected. Forests. 

 hushes, and rank vegetation prevented the 

 washing of the soil, while at the sources of 

 all these rivulets there was the most careful 

 planning to retain the waters. Dead leaves. 



nig trees, mosses and the accumulated 

 -its of the ages a'l were like vast sponges 



ain the waters so that the streams would 



an even flow. Mighty forests were 



planted. They grew and decayed. And so, 



a- the centuries passed, the land grew richer 



and richer. 



How artistically all was arranged! There 

 \\ ere often delightful parks in the forests, and 



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 



disaster. The first is cropping lands without crops were grown are now deserted, and you 

 remuneration; raising wheat year after year can buy farms for half what the building* 

 with no manure, till some of the richest farms would ccst. 



chkkeir^eed ^Th^ ^ ^l What WOIlder - in the midst of a11 this ruin, 

 to rich level lands Th that 3 " GrCat """" Sh Uld *" Se? He ' ks 



. 



green canopy. Lock where you would, in 

 -Hand, plain, and mountain, the ages of 

 the past had made preparations for the ages 

 to ci me. 



Then came the two brothers. Graft and 

 Greed, with no thought or care for the future. 

 with no appreciation whatever of the plans of 

 the Creator. And a careless government. 

 which today, from its own natural resources. 

 ould have" had income enough for current 

 expenses, allowed billions to be taken and 

 destroyed. One of the most beautiful sights 

 earth is a splendid forest. One of the 

 saddest spectacles is to see that same forest 

 the prey of the destructive ax and fire black- 

 ened stumps, like the gravestones of departed 

 uleur. If the lumberman had planned for 

 the most speedy and utter ruin, he could not 

 have prepared a more complete system. He 

 took only half of the tree and left the rest to 

 dry for the great tinder box. The fires came, 

 that dead rubbish was ready for them. 

 X, t only was the dead brush burned, but the 

 age-long deposit of dead leaves, rotten logs. 

 and rich mould needed to feed the soil for 

 the coming eons: all were destroyed: and a 

 garden of Eden became a blackened wilder- 

 How the ruin has spread! Within the 

 memory of man the mighty torests of Indiana 

 and Ohio were chopped down and burned. 

 left till today, they would be worth more than 

 all the crops grown there since their destruc- 

 tion. Take Arizona, for instance. The for- 

 have been cut from the mountains. The 

 rubbish invites the fires, and the fires never 

 miss an invitation. Great flocks and herds of 

 sheep and cattle were driven in, and they 

 Tiave destroyed the herbage which fastened 

 the thin layer of earth to the rocks. The 

 floods came and ripped the earth from the 

 mountain sides and whirled avalanches of mud 

 into the fertile valleys, often plowing out 

 great gullies twenty and thirty feet deep 

 through the rich soil, and all hurried on to 

 fill the river beds. Now. when the floods 

 come, there is nothing to detain them, and 

 the people of Texas must suffer from the 

 vandalism of Arizona. 



There are no richer lands on earth than the 

 treat prairies of the west and here in God's 

 richest garden there have been two sources of 





nand v \l the vr 



ne -H s on-'n^ tn h, ^,1f f x^ 



^iiT *' u" aSte r' ever J" where - M st feed- 

 e s ,-,, - % 7 thelr , feed lots Derched on some 

 itee P hillside, it they can find such a place, 

 * tnat th "chest fertilizer the world pro- 

 d ? utter 'y swept away without any 



' on thelr P art - and th ey kee P n grow- 



ln twenty-five bushels of corn to the acre, 

 wnen - bv saving the manure and plowing their 

 "W deep they might have 010 bushels. 



LJ . ur 9al lands with their marvelous de- 

 Its ' nave . been . well-nigh given away. I 

 have seen veins of coal eleven teet deep which 

 ' he W15e united States government sold for 

 ' ' P er acre -. bt r eams with waterfalls that 

 were ^old mines have been parted with for 



a 5, on ?- 



, lnto Colorado, and vandalism is there, 

 .i^e mountains are robbed of their beauty, 

 * he "Pland pastures are over-grazed, and you 

 P ave desolation instead of beauty. A pioneer 

 '" t" e Rockies once said to me: "I think we 

 earlv settlers should have great credit for 

 c m ' n * '" here and s ' ar , tln g things." I re 

 P^ you never had seen this country 

 and had lef it today as God made it. ,t would 

 be orth five times as much as it is now. 



Our railroads are great civihzers. but the 

 fires set by the engines leave a track of bar- 

 barism behind them. See how it is in Wash- 

 ington and Oregon. The lumber barons who 

 have wrought such ruin at the north are now 

 at work among the grandest forests ever 

 grown. They seem to concentrate all their 

 energies there to complete the work of ruin, 

 In some instances, every device is resorted to 

 to get possession of lands which belong to the 

 people. Take the Appalachian Mountains, 

 The forests are being cut down: the beautiful 

 rivers are filled with rubbish: sand and stones 

 are carried onto fertile valley farms. In .1 

 short time, eighteen million dollars of damage 

 has been inflicted, and yet Congress looks on 

 in indifference while the horror gruw-. 



When you come to the farm, you see also 

 a terrific waste there. In the east the soil is 

 washed away and the rocks and stones are 

 left; no thought or care is taken to save the 

 soil. Many beautiful regions where heavy 



Gifford Pinchot ' bv education one of the best 

 'foresters the world has produced. A man of 

 means, he is net hampered in his work. He is 

 ready to sacrifice thousands for the future. 

 He might have made judicious investments in 

 the great west he knew so well, so he could 

 have become a billionaire. He might have 

 taken his chances in an unguarded moment 

 an d captured forests, water powers, and coal 

 lands. Xo man since the days of Robert 

 Morris, who furnished the sinews of war for 

 Washington and then died in a debtors' prison. 

 has dene more or made greater sacrifices than 

 Mr. Pinchot. Though fcr the present he has 

 i O5t his position, he is yet a king, independent 

 o f throne or crown. "Few men have shown 

 such a fearless persistence in the face of the 

 nlcst determined opposition. There were 

 thousands of men who had pet plans for the 

 future. They wished to put their hands on 

 the nation's wealth. Little cared they for the 

 future. Catt'e men and sheep men. who for 

 vears had been allowed to ruin young forests 

 an d destroy pastures by over-grazing, rose 

 j n arms . And what a clamor they raised! 

 There nn f fi h j fires The 



catt]e men wanted fires. Some of the cowbovs 

 had it worked down to a fine art . Here was a 

 tfact {hev wanted burned They miRht he 



caught. One takes a magnifying glass and sets 

 it so the focused rays next day would light 

 O n dry leaves and other combustibles. The 

 S un does its work, and the innocent cowbov 

 proves an alibi, for he is fifty mi'es away. I 

 me t a range rider in the Rockies and had ;i 

 long talk with him. He would say to stock 

 owners: "You can put only so many head on 

 this range, and you must pay for it." "Xot 

 much." was the answer. "\Ye have had this 

 range, and we are going to have it." He would 

 tell them: "I represent the L'nited States gov- 

 eminent. You cannot afford to have a war 

 -ith 90.000.000 people." Often his life was 

 threatened. All manner of trumped-up charges 

 were sent en to Washington, and sometimes 

 he had to face fire both front and rear. But 

 those heroic men. like the mounted police of 

 Canada, have convinced the ranchmen there is 

 a law in the land, and it must he obeyed. 



I n a terrible time like this, when most of 

 our northwestern forests are tinder-boxes, 



