MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



more than the adoption of the county road 

 system thirteen years ago, says Max Socha, 

 editor of the Herald-Leader, of Menominee. 

 The proposition was unanimously carried 

 when brought before the voters of this coun- 

 ty, also a bond issue of $50,000 to defray 

 the initial expenses of the main road. Since 

 that time there have been about 120 miles 

 of county roads built in this county, a num- 

 ber of miles being permanent macadam road. 

 A number of miles of gravel road were also 

 built with state aid. I can honestly say that 

 since the establishment of the county road 

 system in Menominee county the farming 

 population has increased 200 per cent, while 

 the value of farming lands has increased more 

 than 300 per cent. 



I believe that every county in the state 

 <if Michigan should adopt the county road 

 law. as it provides for some central roads 

 which are being built under the direction of 

 public spirited and practical men, at the same 

 time relieving the various townships of the 

 county of the cost of building and maintain- 

 ing long stretches of highways that are ex- 

 pensive to build and repair. 



That goods roads advance the price of prop- 

 erty is exemplified by the sale of a piece of 

 marsh land on the Beadle lake boulevard out 

 of Battle Creek. Before the boulevard was 

 built the owner could not sell the land for $700. 

 which he offered it for. The other day he sold 

 the property for $1,180. That is what good 

 roads do. 



them to a shipping point. He will buy one tree 

 or three or four or any number. 



When the trees have been cut down the 

 buyer has to get them to the railroad, and for 

 this work he hires teams in the neighborhood; 

 and it takes good teams and hard work to get 

 the logs out over the rough mountain roads. 

 One big white oak tree that was bought at a 

 point twenty miles back, and that cut into two 

 lengths, it took two six horse teams, each haul- 

 ing a single cut, two days to haul out. 



It may be that the buyer will hit a bunch of 

 trees enough for a carload of logs in one place; 

 but if he doesn't find so many in one spot he 

 gets the one tree or three or four or half a 

 dozen that he may find here or there to the 

 railroad and brands them, and then goes on 

 collecting until he has got together enough to 

 make a carload or more. This concern brings 

 veneer logs to New York and it ships also to 

 Boston. 



The black walnut logs collected are mostly 

 shipped to Germany and Spain, those sent to 

 Spain being shipped in the bark, while those 

 sent to Germany are hewed eight sided here 

 before shipment. The black walnut logs are 

 brought mainly from the South. The biggest 

 black walnut tree that this concern ever 

 bought was found in New Jersey, and when 

 cut measured seven feet in diameter at the butt. 



The Muskegon Chamber of Commerce has 

 appointed a committee on agriculture and for- 

 estry, which will gather statistics on Muske- 

 gon's agricultural and forestry possibilities, 

 with the object of arousing interest and hav- 

 ing on hand data to work on. 



Mecosta county will vote on April 6 on the 

 proposition to adopt the county road system. 



Wheatland township. Tuscola county, will 

 expend $10,000 for good roads this year if the 

 taxpayers approve of the proposition to be 

 submitted on April 6. 



DEALERS IN LOGS. 



In a downtown building in New York there 

 appears on the door of one office, under the 

 name of the concern occupying it, this word: 

 "Logs." The business of the concern is to 

 supply logs of certain native woods for the use 

 of veneer manufacturers, and logs of certain 

 other woods for export. White oak, yellow 

 poplar and ash are the woods that this concern 

 collects for veneering purposes, and it buys 

 these wherever it can find them. For some 

 years the principal sources of supply for white 

 oak have been Virginia and West Virginia. 



Two or three times a year a member of the 

 firm who is also its buyer traverses these states 

 in search of suitable white oak trees, and he 

 may find yellow poplar and ash in the' same 

 regions. The white oak has been pretty well 

 cut away along the lines of the railroads, and 

 so now he goes back in the country and spends 

 weeks there looking for suitable trees. 



A log is the clear trunk of the tree extending 

 from the ground to where the tree branches. 

 To be available for veneers a white oak log 

 must be at least ten feet in length and not less 

 than thirty inches in diameter, for the oak 

 must be quartered before it is sawed or. sliced 

 into veneers. They get oak logs that will cut 

 ten, twelve, fourteen and sixteen feet, and occa- 

 sionally they find a white oak tree with a trunk 

 that will measure thirty-six feet, cutting three 

 twelve foot logs, the biggest of these having a 

 diameter of perhaps forty-five inches. 



The log buyer may get back as far as 

 twenty-five miles from the railroad, which is 

 about as far as it will pay to haul a log, and of 

 course the further back he gets the less he 

 pays for the trees, for there is to be added to 

 the price paid for them the cost of hauling 



MICHIGAN'S WASTE LANDS. 



Charles H. Ravell, of The Merchants Loan 

 & Trust Company, of Chicago, has written an 

 interesting article on the Agricultural De- 

 velopment of Michigan. Mr. Ravell says that 

 the wage-earners of Chicago are paying too 

 much for things to eat. Tlie remedy is cheaper 

 and quicker distribution, water transportation 

 and scientific and diversified farming, garden- 

 ing on the nearesi cneap and productive land; 

 the building of three great market places in 

 Chicago, one on the north branch of the Chi- 

 cago river, another on the south branch of the 

 Chicago river and another on the river ad- 

 jacent to the downtown .restaurant and hotel 

 district. The reason for locating these big 

 markets on the river is that the perishable 

 food supplies destined to Chicago can be 

 shipped in by boats, doing away with extra 

 cartage and delays and handling at railroad 

 terminals and furnishing cheaper transporta- 

 tion. This plan will include specially con- 

 structed boats for. carrying cattle, fruit, vege- 

 tables, dairy products of all kinds. The 

 cheaper food is to come from the west of 

 Michigan, which is Chicago's natural and 

 logical market garden. Here is a great terri- 

 tory that has been overlooked, its agricultural 

 worth unappreciated and its development neg- 

 lected. 



It is time to explode the illusion that all 

 the land in the so-called sandy district of 

 Michigan is valueless for agricultural purposes. 

 United States soil surveys have tested and ex- 

 perimented with over ten different soils in the 

 barren tracts of Michigan. Nearly every town- 

 ship in this section has from two to ten differ- 

 ent varieties of soil which is particularly 

 adapted to some special line of agricultural 

 products. The soils range from the lighter 

 sands adapted to fruit orchards, vineyards, 

 berries and melons and poultry raising to 

 heavier sand loams for potato and vegetable 

 raising and garden crops. Clay and black 

 loams for dairying purposes, and the heavy 

 black lands are adapted to raising onions, 

 celery and alfalfa when properly drained. The 

 lighter soil lands are particularly adapted for 

 raising clover, vetch, peas and other crops 

 which would furnish winter feed for thousands 

 of sheep, hogs and cattle, that could be raised 

 in this undeveloped territory. This district 

 is very well watered and the climate particu- 

 larly adapted to diversified agriculture and 

 horticulture. There is an opportunity for 

 hnusands of workers in Chicago, suffering 

 from industrial conditions, to go into this ter- 

 ritory and raise for the Chicago markets all 

 I he berry crops, all the fruit crops, potatoes 

 and garden crops, poultry, eggs, milk, chee&e, 



butter and a large proportion of the meat sup- 

 ply, particularly sheep and hogs. Breeding 

 of goats would be particularly profitable as 

 brush feeders and land clearers. The Chicago 

 restaurants consume tons of high-priced im- 

 ported cheese made from goat milk, the Chi- 

 cago hospitals need and cannot get a suffi- 

 cient supply of goats' milk at any price. The 

 average Chicago worker who has sufficient in- 

 telligence to hold down a twelve or fifteen dol- 

 lar job can by studying the agricultural crop 

 reports very easily become a diversified far- 

 mer. On a forty-acre tract properly devel- 

 oped he and his family can make a splendid 

 living and earn a surplus of from $700 to $1,000 

 a year. He will be his own landlord, and the 

 two hours a day wasted on street cars can 

 be used for developing his own property. 



Three months in the year he can have for 

 play and enjoyment. Farming is hard work, 

 but it is well worth the "while." Those better 

 qualified for the raising of cattle and sheep 

 will have a great advantage in being able to 

 ship by water to the greatest cattle market 

 in the world. Cattle boats will leave such 

 ports as Ludington, Muskegon, Grand Haven 

 every night with loads of cattle, sheep, hogs, 

 poultry, after being properly watered and fed 

 arriving in Chicago in the early morning hours 

 without the losses caused by shrinkage and 

 downers. 



Why hasn't this territory been developed is 

 a fair question for a thinking man to ask. 

 There are several answers to that question. 

 First, the big lumber cutting companies did 

 not want settlers in this territory and they did 

 everything to discourage farming. Second, the 

 stump country is not as inviting to the old- 

 fashioned farmer as the rolling prairies of 

 Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. Besides his 

 farming equipments consisted of machinery 

 which could not be used on an unstumped 

 field. Third, the people in this territory are 

 not farmers by nature, know nothing but "lum- 

 ber." Nature was kind and lavished on them 

 a source of easy wealth. As a class they are 

 by practice destroyers, not builders. 



WOOD PULP IN NORWAY. 



Consul Felix S. S. Johnson, of Bergen, de- 

 scribes the pulp industry of Norway as flour- 

 ishing. For a long time Norwegian pulp wood 

 has played an important part in supplying the 

 world's needs, while a considerable local de- 

 mand has been met. In 1906 Norway exported 

 97,413 tons of paper and its products, valued 

 at 16,353,200 crowns (a crown equals 26.8 

 cents), besides 505,627 tons of wood pulp, 

 worth 31,982,400 crowns. Of the wood pulp 

 the United States took 19,277 tons, Great Brit- 

 ain took 292,371 tons, France 85,808 tons, Bel- 

 gium 45,669 tons, Holland, 25,449 tons, Den- 

 mark, 17,154 tons, Germany, 8,015 tons and 

 Spain, 6,975 tons. The remainder went to 

 Sweden, Russia, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Ar- 

 gentina, India, China, Japan and Australia. The 

 machinery used in the pulp making is of Nor- 

 wegian manufacture. About 20 per cent of 

 Norway is covered by forests. Since 1901 the 

 Norwegian Forest society has planted about 

 30,000,000 trees, while the government plants 

 about 1,500,000 a year. 



SOME TIMBER LEFT. 



W. L. Saunders, general manager ot the 

 Cummer-Diggins company of Cadillac, is not 

 afraid that hardwood timber is about to give 

 out and deprive some one of a job. He says 

 on that question: "As for the Cadillac country 

 we would all have to greatly increase our rate 

 of manufacture to cut off our present holdings 

 in twenty-five years. It will not all be cut 

 then. Pine lasted in this country for twenty- 

 five years after some of the howlers predicted 

 it ^was going. If all the standing timber in 

 this whole country were cut off in twenty 

 years the lumber would be piled up for two 

 or three times that period, as it could not be 

 used faster. I do not think hardwood timber 

 will be cut in any such time as is being- 

 anticipated." 



