MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



13 



need to arouse the conscience of every farmer 

 in our land until the well-protected woodlot 

 will be a part of every farm. The planting 

 of trees should be as much a part of farm 

 work as the planting of corn and wheat, 

 whereas now many think only of cutting them 

 down on any pretext. 



At the last session of the legislature we 

 gained the passage of three bills. 1. The 

 commission of inquiry bill a very important 

 measure. '2. The tire warden as joined to 

 the game warden this is a good bill, as it 

 provides for something and that is more than 

 was ever done before. 3. A forest reserve 

 of about 40,000 acres of agricultural college 

 lands in losco and Alcona counties to be 

 managed by that college. Now we claim that 

 state lands should hereafter be held as forest 

 reserves and only SMch parts as are found 

 to be proper agricultural lands should be sold 

 and sold only to actual settlers. The state 

 should stop wasting money in handling its 

 tax lands $1,500,000 were expended in ten 

 years ending 1905. The state should give a 

 person an honest chance to redeem his lands 

 and not sell to any timber shark who comes 

 along, to the injury of the real owner. The 

 farmer's woodlot should have better protec- 

 tion from hunters and trappers. The state 

 should have nurseries and grow young trees 

 to sell at cost to farmers and others to en- 

 courage tree planting. There should be no 

 tax on forests until trees become of some 

 value. The state should stop giving away 

 lands. During live years the state has sold 

 sun. 000 acres of land at $1.10 an acre. These 

 lands were worth $5 an acre to the state for 

 reforesting. This has caused a loss to the 

 State of from $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 besides 

 rubbing us of the forest growth. 



The national forests comprise 145,000,000 

 - in the United States and 5,000,000 acres 

 in Alaska and Porto Rico. Agricultural lands 

 are excluded from the boundaries of forest 

 ves and the home-maker is not inter- 

 fered with, as the little patches of agricultural 

 land found here and there are open to settle- 

 ment. Forest reserves do not shut out real 

 settlement. The more settlers on a reserve 

 the more men to tight the forest fires. Pros- 

 pecting and mining on these lands go on just 

 the same, and forest reserves keep the timber 

 on hand for use in the mine. The timber 

 and wood are not locked up. These forest 

 lands cannot pass from the government, but 

 the timber is given to the home-maker. The 

 small man can buy a few thousand feet; the 

 big man millions if it be for the interest of 

 all of the people, to allow him to do so. 



The forest reserve land was grazed by 

 I. .mi. IHIII head of cattle and (',.000,000 sheep 

 in I'.MH;. The government protects it from 

 lire, from over-crowding and over-grazing. 

 The flow of the streams is kept steady. The 

 land can be built on, highways, railroads, 

 canals, flumes, reservoirs and telephone lines 

 van secure rights thereon as long as no un- 

 necessary damage is done to the forests. 



What happens to taxes? Ten per cent of 



the receipts from the forest reserves is paid 



the government each year. In 190(5 the 



i reserve paid to school and road funds 



$75,000. 



Forest reserve lands are for use by all of 

 the people and the income keeps coming. 

 The man who skins the land of its timber and 

 moves out does the country more harm than 

 1 He kills the land. The national forest 

 rves are first of all for the benefit of the 

 home-maker; they protect him by assuring 

 wise use of timber and grass and of water 

 supply. The protection from fire alone is 

 worth millions to the people. Forests as 

 large as the state of Rhode Island arc often 

 A\il>ed out in a few days. 



In alloting the lands on the forest range 

 for pasture the small owner is considered 

 first, and a small fee is charged for grazing. 

 The funds thus acquired arc used to keep 

 the range in good condition. It is the duty 

 of us all to keep this earth as good as we 

 found it, and not change a fertile land into 



waste by violating nature's laws. Let us 

 study trees. Can you call 20 by name should 

 you chance to meet them? Every one has 

 or should have a tree love or tree loves (one 

 may be a polygamist -in this) and the beauty 

 of this work is that every one may help. If 

 you have no place around your own home 

 plant for others. Plant a tree or shrub each 

 year that you live. These trees will hold 

 their green sun shades over many a weary 

 head. I hold every one who cuts down a 

 tree or who fails to plant one guilty of lack 

 of care and consideration for the wayfarer. 



We rejoice over to the return to the state 

 treasury of the sums due from our railroads. 

 This is a ,mere bagatelle compared to what 

 wise legislative protection to our forests would 

 have given us. Even the lumbermen are 

 now among the reformers. They see the 

 error of their ways and, confessing their sins 

 are eager to atone for them. It is not so 

 much the use of timber as the waste - of which 

 we complain. The destroying of young tim- 

 ber and the burning of everything. 



In 15 years, forests planted today would 

 return fence posts and railroad ties. In :;."> 

 years they would bring immense revenue to 

 the state. The Canadian Pacific is planting 

 vast tracts along its line and wise is the 

 railroad that thus provides for future needs. 



What can we do. not being citizens? All 

 women can talk. Give up useless gossip and 

 talk forestry. The Mexican Indians planted 

 trees at certain times when tire moon was full 

 naming them after their children. The Aztecs 

 planted a tree when a child was born, giving it 

 the name of the child. 



So I say to you plant trees for some one. 

 When your city streets are shaded go out 

 into the country and give us shaded roads. 

 Let us do our part toward bringing Michigan 

 to the front so that we may sing with prid> 

 Michigan my Michigan, and may we also 

 teach the old song 



Woodman spare that tree, 

 Touch not a single bough. 



In youth it sheltered me, 

 And I'll protect it now. 



THE DENVER CONVENTION 



AND OUR LESSON. 



The "Plunderbund" as the Public Lands 

 Convention has very aptly been termed by a 

 number of our best papers, met, talked and 

 dispersed. It assembled under false pretenses 

 as it was shown by the president's letter. It 

 claimed to gather for a proper and full dis- 

 cussion of the public lands question to as- 

 certain the feeling, the views and the needs of 

 the western people, who have, naturally 

 enough, the first interest in these lands. It 

 met, but it was not a gathering of the people 

 of the west, it was a gathering of the repre- 

 sentatives of a very small minority and of 

 a minority which consisted almost entirely of 

 men who believe in "land grabbing," in the 

 time honored doctrine that it is in the interest 

 of the people and the states to get all lands 

 into private hands as 'soon as possible and 

 under any circumstances. Incidently, of 

 of course, the real land thief was not ex- 

 cluded. 



It was an organized effort to make propa- 

 ganda against the present administration and 

 its policy of administering the affairs of the 

 public lands in the interest of all the people 

 and especially of the real homc-biulders. It 

 was an organized and public attempt to in- 

 terfere with our government and to dictate 

 to the government what it must do with the 

 property of the people. These men are not 

 satisfied with the bad laws which they caused 

 to be enacted such as the pernicious "Timber 

 and Stone Act," under which the people of 

 the United States are forced to give a man 

 land and timber worth $500 per acre at $:.'.">(>. 

 but they demand that even these laws be ad- 

 ministered in a loose and easy fashion to 

 facilitate corruption, perjury and other meth- 



ods to enable land and timber monopoly of 

 the most serious kind. 



And here is where this whole matter be- 

 comes of special interest to the friends of 

 forestry and those interested in the right use 

 of land and other general resources. Under 

 the pretense of Home Rule, the people and 

 congress have left the direction of the land 

 policy and largely its execution also, to the 

 people living in the midst of these lands and 

 interested in them. It was a mistake. It 

 has cost millions of money and millions of 

 acres of land have gone into bad hands and 

 have been taken away from the man who 

 really wants and will make a home. 



To us in Michigan and in other states as 

 well, this same problem comes and though 

 in a little modified form it is none the less 

 clear and serious. Our land laws in Michi- 

 gan were dictated and the administration of 

 our state lands is guided today by 'men who 

 are working among these lands, who are buy- 

 ing and selling them, skinning the remnants 

 of timber from them and making their living 

 out of it. Is it likely that these men have 

 the good of all the people of our state at 

 heart, or that these laws and their execution 

 is really in the interest of the people and not 

 merely in the interest of the interested? And 

 is it wise and right, that a small, truly in- 

 significant minority of men (for they are not 

 the majority of the people even in their own 

 town or county) should dictate to the state 

 how these matters shall be managed? And 

 is it right that the people of our state shall 

 make sacrifice and great sacrifice in money, 

 simply because a few men want to deal in 

 timber lands or cut over lands and demand 

 that they be handled in the present manner? 

 What does this amount to? For the last four 

 years the state has sold over 700,000 acres of 

 land at an average price of about $1.20 per 

 acre. Is this not advertising Michigan as a 

 desert, and sacrificing millions of dollars to 

 do such advertising? This land is worth $5 

 per acre at least, simply to let it grow up to 

 timber (and surely we need timber), and here 

 the interest of a few demands the sacrifice 

 of millions on the part of the people. Will 

 the people continue or will the state assert 

 its right to say what it will do with its own? 

 FILIBERT ROTH. 



AU SABLE'S WATER POWER. 



Edward F. Loud, of H. M. Loud's Sons 

 Company of Au Sable, writes to H. A. Savage 

 of Saginaw as follows: 



"The Au Sable river is capable of producing 

 in the neighborhood of 25.000 horse power for 

 24-hour service, and "owing to the unusual 

 storage basins the river coujd probably furnish 

 50,000 horse power on 10-hour service. This 

 is more power than Saginaw and Bay City 

 would require for some time to come. 



"To develop this power on the Au Sable 

 would require the building of six or eight 

 dams, ranging from 30 to 50 feet in height 

 The flow of the river is remarkably even. 



"There is no question in my mind but that 

 this power will be developed and brought to 

 Bay City and Saginaw in the not very distant 

 future." 



ENLARGING TIE TREATING PLANT. 



As a part of the general movement now be- 

 ing carried forward throughout the United 

 States to protect the general timber supply 

 of the country the Chicago & Northwestern 

 Railway Company will spend approximately 

 J:i5,000 at once in enlarging the company's 

 present tie preserving plant at Escanaba, 

 Mich. Instructions have been issued by the 

 officials of the company to enlarge the plant 

 for the installation of the creosote and Rutger 

 preserving process in addition to the Well- 

 house process that is now in use at the plant. 

 Plans and specifications have been completed 

 and contracts have been awarded for furnish- 

 ing a portion of the material. It is expected 

 that actual construction work will be begun 

 at the plant within a short time. 



