THE STATE REVIEW. 



Michigan Forestry Association. 



The Michigan Forestry Association was organized in Grand Rapids August 30, 1905, having for its object the promotion of a rational system ot 

 forestry in Michigan. The society is managed by the following roster of officers: President, John H. Bissell, of Detroit, Vice-President, C. S. Udell, 

 Grand Rapids; Secretary, Henry G. Stevens, Detroit; Treasurer, J. J. Hub bell, Manistcc. Board of Directors, Mrs. Francis King, Alma; L. L. Hub- 

 bard, Houghton ; S. M. Lemon, Grand Rapids; H. N. Loud, Au Sable; Thos. B. Wyman, Munising; Mrs. J. C. Sharp, Jackson; C. D. Law-ton, Lawton. 



The State Forestry Commission Charles W. Garfield, Grand Rapids ; Arthur Hill, Saginaw ; William H. Rose, Lansing. 



The Early History of Forestry in Michigan. 



By Prof. W. J. Beal, Michigan Agricultural College. 



For at least I wenly-il\ e years after the 

 Michigan Agricultural College \vas estab- 

 lished, no one of the teaching force was per- 

 mitted to occupy what is termed a chair by 

 "himself, litil he taught many subjects, and in 

 the words of Oliver \\eiidall Holmes, occu- 

 pied a whole settee. Fur eleven years the 

 writer was known as Professor of llotany 

 and Horticulture, and at the end of this 

 peri, nl. Mime one suggested that he be en- 

 titled i'rofessor of llotany and Forestry, not 

 cting that he would do much in forestry, 

 for nothing was then demanded by anybody. 

 state board adopted the suggestion and 

 new combination continued for twenty- 

 one years. 



Anticipating the future use of it. in 1875, 

 thirty-one years ago. 1 began a small planta- 

 tion of trees soon after twice enlarged, in all 

 about two acres, containing one hundred and 

 fifty-two species. Many of these thrived and 

 ittracted some attention. As there were no 

 patterns to follow at that time, mistakes were 

 made in the planting; still, the mistakes have 

 prosed 10 lie as instructive as the successes. 



After a while some lectures were given to 

 students and later a few of them decided to 

 follow forestry as an occupation. During 

 is!"; to \^w, thirty lectures were given at 

 tiers' institutes in as many different conn- 

 ties, and at each a resolution was usually 

 unanimously passed that it was high time that 

 Michigan enact some sensible laws regarding 

 the management of her cut-over tax lands, but 

 11 the legislature convened every one had 

 apparently forgotten his support of the reso- 

 lution. 1 was not a candidate for the position 

 of Forester. In 1887, lion. X. A. Reedier got a 

 bill through the legislature establishing a 

 state fores! commission, and later Gov. Luce 

 appointed Hon. C. \V. Garlield and the writer 

 to carry out the provisions of the law. One 

 thousand dollars tor two years were at our 

 'osal. not for salary, but for clerk hire, 

 postage, etc. Owing to ill-health. Mr. Gar- 

 tield was able to do little, and owing to clu- 

 lies at the college, T was not able to do very 

 much in the way of investigating forest prob- 

 lems. On Jan. ;.'<; and :i?, IS88, we held an en- 

 thusiastic forest convention at Grand Rapids. 

 The first and only report was printed late in 

 1888. Four years after its enactment, the 

 Squawbuck legislature repealed the act as a 

 measure of economy. 



As part of my work for the experiment sta- 

 tion, by request of the State Board of Agri- 

 vulture, I selected Jack pine land at Baldwin, 

 AYalton, Harrison. Grayling ami AuSable. 

 where tests ot grasses., clovers and othei 



plants were made. Incidentally, in May 

 Isss. about two acres at Grayling were set to 

 sixty-live kinds of trees, including a few 



bs, and at AuSable a few trees were plant- 

 ed on the poorest pine plains thai could be 



I. S e of these trees have grown now 



nineteen summers. As might have been 

 expected, most of these trees, including chest- 

 nut, black walnut, hickory, catalpa. white ash. 

 red maple, coffee tree, honey locust, red elm 

 and American elm. soon perished or showed 

 no signs of thrift. So far as tested, those 

 most likely the best suited \,> such land are 

 Norway pine, white spruce and Jack-pine and 

 possibly white pine and red cedar. 



The majority of people who are well in- 

 formed and of sound judgment have never 

 claimed that the genuine Jack-pine sands were 

 quite equal to the burr-oak land of Lcnawee 



;nd Hillsdale or the prairies of Kalamazoo and 

 Merrieii. After the State Hoard of Agriculture 

 had voted to discontinue the experiments on 

 the jack-pine plains, at a fanners' institute held 

 : >t Tawas City, some genius of the neighbor- 

 hood read the following original production, 

 which contains some grains of truth. It went 

 as follows., without corrections: 



"Pause by those mounds and shed a tear, 



For the hopes of the plains lies hurried here. 



Look on this graveyard as you pass 



It's the burrial place of Egyptian grass. 



The professors are gone, their mission is done, 



They left like the settlers, one by one; 



It's where our State in the days of yore, 



Droped out of sight sonre thousands more. 



The Professors are gone, their mission is done, 



They left like the settlers, one by one. 



As they crossed the AuSable to take the train 



We heard them murmur this sad refrain: 



\Yc are going h-mie. vain all our toil, 



The scenery is grand, but dam the soil." 



At the suggestion of C. D. Smith, Profes- 

 sor of Agriculture, the Board placed the man- 

 agement of the woodland of the College in 

 my charge. This included about 200 acres, 

 portions of which were well cut over. A care- 

 ful survey of the laud was made and a well de- 

 fined policy adopted. Undesirable timber was 

 gradually removed and in open places many 

 seeds and seedlings were planted. Ill the 

 luring of lS!)!i, ten years ago, a rough held of 

 ;i\ and one-half acres was planted to white 

 pines. I* inches high, 8x10 feet apart, expect- 

 liat in two years box elders would be in- 

 serted to crowd (lie pine and induce them to 

 grow tall. For some reason the planting of 

 box elders was delayed for the most part. Now 

 we can watch the behavior of this plantation 

 as above described. It has become a most at- 

 tractive and unique grove of young timbers 

 a good object lesson for students and farmers 

 especially so since evergreen trees are very 

 seldom met with in Ingham count)". In the 

 spring of lS!)(i. a wind brake, a mile and a 

 quarter long, was also placed on tile west line 

 ol the college farm consisting of white pine, 

 uith some arbor vitae along the lowland. The 

 trees were set in two rows twelve feet apart, 

 the trees in each row twelve feel apart alter- 



nating with those in the other row. A portion 

 of these were left in grass, most of them were 

 cultivated for four years. 



During the past thirty-five j'ears, numerous 

 rather brief contributions were furnished the 

 State Horticultural Society and a number of 

 newspapers and magazines. During portions 

 of the last thirty-live years several other per- 

 sons have been more or less active in the in- 

 terest of forestry in Michigan, notably the 

 lion. C. W. Gargcld, Prof. V. M. Spanieling, 

 Dr. U. C. Kedzie and the Hon. T. T. Lyon, and 

 in later days, the names ol muuy others, most 

 of whom are active in the State Forestry As- 

 sociation. 



Roth Is Gracious. 



Professor Roth, of Ann Arbor, delivered a 

 lecture at Alma recently before the Farmers' 

 Institute of Gratiot county and the citizens of 

 Alma on what he characterized as "the great- 

 est branch of agriculture forestry." He took 

 for his subject "Forestry, the Right Way and 

 the Wrong Way." - The lecture was illustrated 

 by the use of the stereopticon, with views 

 from the forests of Germany and Switzerland, 

 also the great forests, of the western part of 

 the United States. He spoke also to the stu- 

 dents in the college chapel, in his usual felicit- 

 ous and forceful way, and awakened much in- 

 terest in his subject. 



Professor Roth has been very gracious to 

 Alma, always coming when called upon, and 

 the people there are beginning to think that 

 they have a copyright on his services when 

 anything is wanted on the subject of forestry. 



A Reporter's Slip. 



Fditor State Review: May I correct the 

 wrong impression given you by the following 

 paragraph in your issue for December? 



"The name of Dr. Hubbard was added to 

 the original list of directors by suggestion of 

 Mrs. King, who is conversant with the valu- 

 able work that he is doing in support of the 

 forestry movement in the upper peninsula." 



I merely suggested that Dr. Hubbard, who 

 was a member of the original board of di- 

 rectors, should be asked to serve again. 

 Very truly yours. 



LOUISA Y. KING. 



>tate 



the 



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