THE STATE REVIE\V. 



in its day. but it is ancient, and the land office 

 at Washington lias drifted To years behind the 

 times." 



Mr. Ruse "The people are demanding 

 homesteads mi every kind of land." 



Prof. Roth "Ft has been 1113' experience in 

 the slate n-erve region that the homesteaders 

 are not looking lor homes, but lor cedar.' 1 



Mr. ko-e "That's frequently so. My plan 

 of refusing to -ell worthless tracts to appli- 

 cant- for homesteads has made enemies for 

 me." 



II. X. Loud "It is the policy of our com- 

 pany, in the An Sable district, to sell good 

 fanning lands at if 10 per acre, none being .-old 

 for less than $5. Agricultural lands for grax- 

 ing purpo-es are not sold for less than $'.' per 

 acre in any case. In driving through portions 

 of Ko-common and Crawford counties you 

 will pass by mile.- and miles of deserted home- 

 Steads, where men", women and children 'have 

 made wrecks ot their lives. 1 have seen them 

 cold, starved and hungry, the most pitiable ob- 

 jects on earth, in their struggle to somehow 

 wrench a living from the barren sands." 



F.dward Stein "The lands should be classi- 

 fied. This i- a vital iiuestinn and should be 

 settled righ, and at once." 



Dr. Meal "Mr. Rose, would you change the 

 home-lead law?" 



Mr. Rose --"I would. Xo man should lie al 

 ed to homestead more than so acre- \ 

 community is better oft with men mi e 

 eighty, and this would mean better road-. 

 - il-. etc." 



Mr. \\yman "In the upper peninsula the 

 home-leader is after timber tracts in alnrist 

 ever_\ case. His residence on the land is not 

 continuous. ile may spend the hui 1 

 son there, and at the expiration of live years 

 he -ells his title to a lumber company." 



Mr. Rose "That is true of the lower pcihn 

 snla. also." 



Mr. \Vynian "The law should be more 

 Stringent. \\ e have Finns on our lands, and 

 we re-irict them." 



Mr. Loud "I favor the entire abandonment 

 of the homestead law. I am familiar with our 

 extensive territory along the An Sable river, 

 and I don't know of one legitimate home- 

 steader in losco m- ( )-ccola county. The only 

 lands the state has at all are those that the 

 lumbermen have thrown away, and that no- 

 body has been willing to buy for the past :><> 



years. I have -ecu too many ) r men pan- 



pcrixcd to believe in the homestead law." 



Mr. Rose "I would not oppose the killing 

 of the law 



Prof. Roth "What about the lire law? What 

 are it- weak point.-? There's not much use 

 going a step farther until we can light lire." 



Mr. Rose "I ba\ e a copy ot" the piv-ent law 

 here, and let us run through it." 



Prof. Roth "This law really tempts super- 

 visors to start lircs in dull time-, for there is 

 >"><! m il for them no more. This official ha- 

 lo watch out pretty closely when he gel- up 

 18.50 to see thai he does not get past tin- 

 limit." 



Mr. Loud- "The state lire warden has spent 

 the princely sum of S's;;; during the year in 

 protecting the interest- of propertv owners. 

 Just think of it, in connection with the amdunl 

 noney that the lumbermen are paying III'- 

 state in taxes every year." 



Mr. Roth "Mr. Carl Schmidt, of Detroit, 

 ed to furnish a man without expense to 

 the state to assist in preventing fires, but this 

 fire law forbade any such thing." 



Mr. Rose "The state owns land- l< 

 within -10 miles of Lansing that have been on 

 fire for the pa-t three- months. 1 don't know- 

 lint the muck is burning yet. 



A change in the law- relating to the process 

 of titles should be handled very carefully. I 

 am not in favor of the state taxing its own 

 lands." 



Prof. Roth "I like Mr. Rose for his frank- 

 ness. Pennsylvania pays a flat rate on its 

 lands, and it seems to me that if Michigan is 

 part owner of the townships that it should 

 bear part of the burden of support." 



Mr. Loud -"In Oscoda county the state and 



the United States own practically all the land. 

 There are 31) voters in 1-14 square mile- of 

 territory, owning property in the 

 that I doubt not may be bought for S Ml.o.r). 

 Why should this handful of people have the 

 care and worry of looking after practically 

 that entire territory?" 



Mr. Ro-e "My train lea\es in a few min- 

 utes and 1 .shall have to go. 1 hope that this 

 convention will arrive at some definite con- 

 clusions as to what you want. As to the 

 maintenance of a regular paid lire patrol, out- 

 side of the state reserve. I think that the ter 

 ritory is too great and am afraid thai 

 cannot get legislation to provide for this." 



Prof, Roth "1 think that Michigan might 

 well adopt some of the F.uropcan inelhod-." 



Mr. Rose "Are not the German laws more 

 arbitrary than here? And would not there be 

 trouble in enforcing such laws"--" 



Prof. Roth "The Americans are a patient 

 pie, and are just as good people as exist 

 under the sun. They will light lires and light 

 ; them gratis." 



MR. LOUD'S ADDRESS. 



"ONE OF THE BAD MEN, WHO HAVE BEEN 



CUTTING TREES," BECOMES 



REPENTANT. 



The address of Henry X. Loud, of An Sable, 

 on fore-try topics, with special refercn, 

 the Agricultural College lands, which was in- 

 teresting throughout, pointed and appropriate, 

 concluded the afternoon program. Mr. Loud 

 said in part : 



dman. spare that tree,' but where 

 would Grand Rapids be if that injunction were 

 carried out? Xearly everything is made of 

 wood here, and the city's prosperity has 

 sprung from falling trees. 



"We've cut the trees, and the next thing is 

 to replace them. We are here to worship at 

 the shrine of Mr. Garlield. who must be con- 

 sidered as the great, original crank in the for 

 estry movement. Fic's been talking forestry 

 ever since'l can remember. Blessed be cranks, 

 for they turn the wheels of progress. 



"I'm one of the bad men, who have been 

 cutting trees, and am standing here before 

 you to ask, 'what is to he done?' 



"Mrs. King alluded to the Christinas tree 

 -laughter. Let's have Christmas trees and 

 have, them forever. Michigan ladies can tell 

 the people how to raise them. The farmer 

 who will turn over to his boys his poorest 

 land, to be planted to spruces, will find it to 

 be the most profitable crop he can raise. 

 Spruce trees are selling on the ground up in 

 our country at 10 to 2~> cent- apiece. Set tin- 

 trees four feet apart and you can raise :!.:>():> 

 to the acre. Spruces will grow anywhere in 

 Michigan. 



"I am sorry not to see more young men 

 here. It is difficult to disabuse older men of 

 their settled notion that it is more profitable 

 to rai-e potatoes than tri 



A Great Forest Area. 



"1 am showing you here a map of the \u 

 Sable river, in the eastern section of the slate, 

 which is a part of the great fore-t area ol 

 Michigan. Of this area of 1. 00!) square mile-. 

 300 -quare miles lie within '.17 miles of An 

 Sable, and in :!:"><> square mile- oi this territory 

 there is not a single inhabitant. The \gricul- 

 tural College lands lie in a solid block of ::.">. 0:1:1 

 acres, and are most available for reforestation. 



"We propose to a-k the legislature for an 

 appropriation of $.~>.00() to reforest this part of 

 [osco county, for the benefit of the Agricultu- 

 ral college and the state as a whole, making a 

 great forest laboratory where young men may 

 be educated. There are no inhabitants here 

 to bother with. The area is covered with oak- 

 of two or three varieties, and all suitable for 

 tie timber. 



"As to the question of taxation of these 

 lands. 1 want to be taxed, for I want a \ 

 in the appointing of suitable wardens. The 

 other day a man said to me, 'I've got a slash- 



ing that I want to burn, and you have some 

 hemlock adjacent to it that may gel afire.' As 

 it is I can do nothing about it. We need laws 

 that will give proper lire and police protection 

 in such cases. 



"The railroad.- of the country have made no 

 provision for their tie timber. In earlier years 

 they used to specify live cedar, but that has 

 long since gone by the board, and now d 

 cedars are dug out of swamps for tie.-. 



"I want a broad system of agriculture taught 

 in the schools, not technical silviculture, but 

 the ability to know plants, grains and trees. It 

 is no more difficult to learn how to plant trees 

 than cabbages." 



Committee meetings were held at the close 

 oi the afternoon session. 



PROF. LANE'S ADDRESS. 



THE STATE GEOLOGIST DISCUSSES THE 

 QUESTION OF SOILS. 



I'rof. A. C. Lane, of Lansing, state geolo 

 made the first address at the evening session, 

 the salient points in his remarks being as fol- 

 lows: 



"I am interested in this forestry question. 

 Certain soils in the state are better adaptei 



i culture than to anything else. 1 

 agree with I'rof. Roth that there is no land 

 so pom- but that it is worth at least $5 an acre 

 to the state. Speaking of the timber famine 

 it is here already, and it is not an mini 

 -vil. tor the substitutes all have to come from 

 the ground. My impression is that all our 

 houses at no far off date will be built of cement 

 or sand brick. It will not be long before -, 

 will cost more than do these materials, and 

 then frame houses will speedily go on 

 fashion. 



"Have you any idea of the immense amount 

 of wood that i- used in timbering the mines 

 upper peninsula? The Calumet & I lee- 

 la people are putting timber under ground at 

 the rate of :i:!,000,()00 feet yearly. When 1 

 came to Michigan, about 17 years ago, they 

 were using cork pine in the mines, a wood 

 that is almost extinct in the state now. The 

 mining companies have timber laiuU of their 

 own, which they are drawing on as sparingly 

 is possible, and in the meantime are in the 

 market for all the timber they can get con- 

 veniently. Having wood of their own : 

 vents the other fellows from sticking them. 



Substitutes for Wood. 



"In the past year I have seen miles and 

 miles of stone wall in use in the mining 

 tricts. and iron and steel substitutes for w 

 are also creeping in. Pine from Arkansas and 

 the Pacific coast is being imported by the up- 

 per peninsula operators. 



"Ten years ago." said Prof. Lane in clo 

 "I made a prediction that Detroit would be 

 mining salt within 10 years. Well, I h 

 missed, but I want to renew the prediction. 

 Detroit will certainly be a salt mining town 

 within the next decade, and her industrial de- 

 velopment will be materially hastened." 



Samuel Ranck. in charge of (he Kycr-ou 

 public library of Grand Rapids, followed with 

 an instructive talk along the line of "Hooks on 

 Forestry." lie stated that of the books at the 

 library distinctively de\oted to forestry the 

 records of the year show that the following, in 

 their order, have proved to be most populai 

 with patron- -- Xeweli's Trees of X'orth Amer- 

 ica, l-'nller's Practical Forestry, I'incliot's 

 Primer of Forestry, and Sargent's Wood 

 the I'nited States. 



Mr. Ranck called attention to the imp. 

 ance of writing readable books, lie mcmiom-d 

 an exhaustive work of several volumes that 

 had remained undisturbed on the shelves up 

 to this time, not having been drawn once, ami 

 this want of attention was attributed to heavi- 

 ne-s or prosincs-. In this connection he spoke 

 of Stewart F.dward White's 1'daxed Trail, 

 which I he library has seven copies, and each 

 cop; has been drawn over ~>~> times since 

 placed in circulation. 



