MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



the South known as the Piedmont section, arc 

 beyond the borders of our state. There are 

 $103,000,000 invested in cotton mill plants, and 

 $18,000,000 of these are subject to injury by 

 floods. Agriculture in the Piedmont is also 

 seriously affected by the washing of gullies. 

 and the lowlands are ruined by the silt that 

 comes down from the mountain area. The 

 damage to agriculture is $3,000,000 annually 

 oil account of the overflowing and rendering 

 absolutely useless of the bottom lands of the 

 state. If the Government can make the arid 

 lands valuable, it certainly can prevent valu- 

 able lands from beconrng arid. In a single 

 Hood loss in l!)0:i. nearly $4. 01, 0.0(10 went by 

 the board. Such Hoods were not known before 

 the deforestation or' the mountains. In one 

 year $:i.(!()0,()OO worth of valuable lands were 

 destroyed within the distance of eight miles 

 below Columbia." 



M. O. Leighton, Chief Hydrographer of the 

 United States Geological Survey, declared that 

 the two great floods on the Ohio river last 

 spring cost at least $100,000,000, not allowing 

 for depreciation of property constantly subject 

 to flood hazard. In reply to a question, he- 

 said: "The flood in the Ohio was due, in lar-je 

 part, to the denudation of the forests." 



TREE PRESERVATION. 



The movement tending toward the saving of 

 the torests and the preservation of trees, which 

 i- becoming general throughout the country, 

 and for the promotion of which numerous 

 conferences will be held during the current 

 year, >s one which is deserving of great com- 

 mendation and general co-operation. The 

 desirability of avoiding' as much as possible 

 the needless destruction of trees has impressed 

 itself upon the managers of large corporate 

 interests and many of the big concerns owning 

 large' wooded tracts are adopting systematic 

 methods of caring for the trees, and by estab- 

 lishment of forest reserves are p roviding for 

 the encouragement of arboriculture. 



[n the copper country of Michigan an im- 

 portant innovation has been made along these 

 lines by at least two of the mining companies. 

 In the laying out of town sites, the Ojibway 

 and the Kcwccnaw Mining Companies have 

 adopted a system by which the trees will not 

 be cut down indiscrinrnalely. as ha.- frequently 

 been done hereto!" ire. but as the streets are 

 cleared and opened up. a fringe of trees will 

 be left bordering them, and when lots are 

 being prepared for the erection of houses onh 

 such trees will be removed as is necessary, all 

 the others being left standing. Heretofore it 

 has been the practice at many locations in 

 laying out towns'tes to cut down at once all 

 the timber within the limit of the proposed 

 town, with the result that some locations are 

 now practically de-titnte of trees. 



This detracts greatly from the beauty and 

 attractiveness of those places and the step- 

 taken by the companies meiit'oncd. and also 

 to some extent by the King Philip and \Yinona 

 companies, will contribute much toward mak- 

 ing those locations desirable for residences by 

 adding to the attractiveness of the surround- 

 ings. 



A FLOOD PREVENTIVE. 



It is estimated by the United States Geologi- 

 cal Survey that floods cost the American 

 people Sion.cco.cco a year in loss of property, 

 while the mere menace of these floods pre- 

 vents the development of thousands of square 

 miles of otherwise valuable property and limits 

 the usefulness of a far greater area. Great 

 a- is the annual destruction of property, greater 

 still is the loss by the waste of the water 

 itself. A con-ervative estimate places the 

 '.vater loss at live times the value of the prop- 

 erty loss. If the Hood water of the United 

 States could be stored for future use. 't would 

 be worth $.">(M). 11(10. 000 a year to us. Therefore 

 '* is safe to say that, directly and indirectly, 

 floods cost the American people a total of 

 ;: ioo.oiio.ooo a year. 



To prevent or minimixe this great loss th- 

 engineers of the water resources branch of 



the Geological Survey have been for a number 

 of years making systematic studies of flood 

 conditions on many streams throughout the 

 country, and several of their reports have been 

 published. Attention is now clraWn to Water 

 Supply Papers Xos. ss, >.>:>, !i(i, 147 and Hi::. 

 Renewed impetus was given to the work by 

 the great flood in the Ohio river basin in 

 March, 11107, which was one of the two greatest 

 in a hundred years, the other having occurred 

 in 1884. 



The ideal remedy for floods, according to 

 the engineers of the survey, is the keeping 

 of the earth's surface in a porous condition, 

 so that the water will be absorbed and held 

 as by a sponge, and allowed to pass slowly 

 into the streams. Vegetation is the great 

 agent that produces porosity of soil, and the 

 most effective form it vegetation for the re- 

 tardation of surface flow is forest cover. For- 

 estation, therefore, is the prime requisite for 

 the nrcvcntion of the needless waste caused by 

 floods. 



THE TREE BUTCHERS. 



lion. \Y. H. Mershon, of Saginaw, has writ- 

 ten a letter to his fellow_ members of t.he 

 board of park and cemetery commissioners 

 and to the mayor of Saginaw, in which he 

 refers to many complaints made to him by 

 people who do not like to see trees cut down 

 from in front of their homes, hut who appear 

 to 'be helpless in the matter. One complain! 

 was made to him by a resident of South \Yea- 

 dock avenue that two trees were cut down 

 in front of her home by men, who gave as 

 their reason for doing the job that they had 

 been given the wood in them. Mr. Mershon 

 comments upon the unquestioned distress 

 caused those who see their trees butchered 

 in this manner, trees they have grown up 

 with and learned to love. 



At the same time it is pointed out the 

 park board is powerless, the common council 

 having refused to enact the parkway ordinance 

 giving the board control of just such situa- 

 tions. This appears all the more inexplicable 

 to the writer of the letter, as the board is 

 quite willing to do all the work without mak- 

 ing charge for its services or time, and to 

 see. that street shade trees are systematically 

 trimmed and pruned, without damage to them, 

 and without having it occur as at present, 

 that men from the city and from different 

 lighting or other concerns come along and 

 perform butchery, sometimes cutting the very 

 hearts out of the trees. 



Mr. Mershon deprecates present condition- 

 and expresses the opinion that the "street.- 

 are just as much a part >>f the beautifying 

 scheme for the city of Saginaw as its park-;, 

 and that tra-ned. systematic and intelligent 

 supervision is far belter than the present 

 method." 



to be ordered from France, as they can be 

 procured more cheaply there. The trees will 

 be sold to the children at one cent each. 



When the trees arrive it is proposed to 

 keep them at a central location, where they 

 will be properly cared tor until time to place 

 them at the various schools for distribution 

 on Arbor day. Prior to the day it is proposed 

 to distribute to the children a folio of instruc- 

 tions regarding tree planting and care, with 

 instructions for the particular kind of tree 

 given, and the folio will also tell of the sig- 

 nificance of Arbor day. It is proposed to have 

 the pupils take the trees home and plant them, 

 although if a demonstration is deemed advis- 

 able a tree may be planted on the school 

 grounds to show the pupils how to proceed. 

 In case trees are left over because children 

 have no place to plant them, such trees may 

 be sold to others. It is also proposed to nave 

 members of the Board of Trade speak at the 

 schools on Arbor day. 



Mr. Garfield says that if this movement is 

 successful it will probably be carried out each 

 year, the children being provided with shrubs 

 or plants I lie next vear instead of trees. 



WHERE THE FORESTRY QUESTION 

 COMES HOME. 



At a rough estimate, considerably over half 

 of the workingmen of Muskegon today are 

 employed in industries in which a very large 

 share of the raw material that enters into 

 their products is lumber. Year by year these 

 factories have to go farther and farther from 

 home to secure the supplies of material which 

 keep their wheels turning. The inevitable 

 tendency is for the factory to follow the sup- 

 ply of raw material. Hitherto the coal fields 

 of the east have been a counterbalancing item 

 in the problem, but now the river and moun- 

 tain streams of the west are being harnessed 

 to the factory wheels, and coal is no longer 

 the autocrat that it was. 



Within a few years, and only a very few 

 at that, the supplies of timber in the easter"n 

 part of the nation, now so sadly depleted, will 

 be entirely exhausted. If no new supplies are 

 found to take the place of those that have 

 been so recklessly thrown away, what is to 

 become of the industries which depend on 

 them? Manufacturing has been gradually fill- 

 ing the void that was left in Michigan when 

 the lumbering industry began to wane. It 

 may be that in turn, if the factories were to 

 be lost, something else would be brought in 

 to till their place, but the state can ill afford 

 to go through another period of depression 

 such as followed the passing of the sawmill. 

 Muskegon Chronicle. 



PREPARING FOR ARBOR DAY. 



Ten thousand young elm trees from France, 

 to be distributed to the children in the public 

 schools of Grand Rapids, is the prospect for 

 \rlior day this year. Providing the elm trees 

 has been undertaken by the sub-committee 

 of the Hoard of Trade, which has charge of 

 the Arbor day campaign, and which organiza- 

 tion is allied with the sub-committee on a 

 more beautiful city, of which Charles W. Gar- 

 lield is chairman, and which is one of tin 

 divisions of the big municipal affairs com- 

 mittee. The Rev. R. II. Hartley, J. P. Mu;i 

 son and I'". V. Goble are the member- oi 

 the Arbor day committee, and working with 

 them are Chairman Garfield and John B. Mai- 

 tin, chairman of the municipal affairs com- 

 mittee. 



At a recent meeting of the members of 

 the Board of Education and the Board of 

 Trade men, the school men expressed them 

 - Ives willing to aid in any reasonable ar- 

 rangement to distribute trees lo the children 

 for Arbor day. and the Board of Trade com- 

 mittee has decided to order 10,000 young elms, 

 between four and live feet high, the trees 



A VALUABLE RECORD. 



The Michigan Forestry Commission has is- 

 sued a brochure containing the addresses, 

 papers and discussion of the annual meeting 

 of the State Forestry Association, held in 

 Saginaw in November last. 



This meeting brought together the forestry 

 commissions of Michigan, Minnesota, Wiscon- 

 sin and Illinois, with Canadian representatives 

 fr mi the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. 

 It was one of the greatest gatherings upon 

 practical forestry matters ever gotten together. 



With practically all of the states and prov- 

 inces mentioned the forestry problems are 

 similar,, and in the discussions and the presen- 

 tations of v;ews plans were mapped out which 

 \vill result in a uniformity of work for the 

 rehabilitation of the depleted forests and the 

 reclamation of the vast tracts of land which 

 are now denuded and barren. 



President Charles W. Garlield. of the Michi- 

 gan Forestry Commission, desired that the 

 pr ireedings should be published in such form 

 that they would be of permanent value, and, 

 consulting with the state printer, a booklet 

 was produced which is a great improvement 

 over the ordinary product of the public 



printers. 



