10 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



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 

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

 Hanson, Grayling; Secretary, J. Fred Baker, Lansing; Treasurer, J. J. Hubbell, Manistee. Board of Directors Mrs. Francis King, Alma; Hon. 

 Arthur Hill, Saginaw; S. M. Lemon, Grand Rapids; H. N. Loud, Au Sable; Thos. B. Wyman, Munising; Prof. Filibert Roth, Ann Arbor. 



The State Forestry Commission Charles W. Garfield, Grand Rapids; Hon. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw; William H. Rose, Lansing. 



STATE FORESTRY 



AND THE FARMER 



Professor Toumey, head professor of for- 

 estry at Yale, discussed "State Forestry and 

 Its Relation to the Farmer" at the forestry 

 session of the Round-up Institute at the Michi- 

 gan Agricultural College. He said: 



If by some means you could be carried 

 above the surface of the earth, and trom 

 your height look down upon the broad face 

 of the county; if you could see the entire 

 region from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 

 from British America to Mexico, stretched 

 out before you. the vegetation covering the 

 land surface would appear as three general 

 types, viz., forest, grassland and desert. The 

 relative proportion of each of these three gen- 

 eral types of vegetation is governed primar- 

 ily by climatic and soil conditions, secondly, 

 by the activities of man. At the commence- 

 ment of settlement in this country forest 

 vegetation covered approximately 45 per cent 

 of the entire country, prairie vegetation 5 

 per cent, and plains and barrens the re- 

 mainder. 



At the tension lines between these three 

 types of vegetation there is constant struggle 

 for control. Natural or artificial factors which 

 decrease the available water supply result in 

 the increase of the grassland or the desert 

 vegetation. On the other hand, factors which 

 tend to improve the fertility of the land, par- 

 ticularly its water capacity, result in the ex- 

 tension of the forest vegetation. The ac- 

 tivity of the American people in progress 

 of settlement in this country has so interfered 

 with these tension lines between the three 

 great types of soil cover that forest vegeta- 

 tion is bing continually narrowed down. So 

 much so, that there is great danger of so 

 decreasing the area of woodland as to seri- 

 ously interfere with the future development 

 of the country. 



Not only is the area of natural woodlands 

 becoming less and less with each succeeding 

 year, but the forest that remains has been 

 largely culled and cut over without regard 

 for trie future. It is largely composed of 

 inferior species, those left behind in past log- 

 ging operations. No attention is paid to re- 

 production. It has been burned and grazed, 

 and today is not producing one-tenth of what 

 it ought to produce under adequate protec- 

 tion and management. 



Farmers Need to Awaken. 



Do the farmers of Michigan realize that 

 the area of our virgin forests is decreasing 

 more rapidly today than ever before? Many 

 of you will live to see the day when the 

 supply of timber cut from virgin stands in 

 this country will be wholly of the past. Where, 

 then, is our timber coming from, that we 

 require in constantly increasing quantity? It 

 must come from our culled and cut-over wood- 

 lands and from the farmer's woodlot. While 

 the virgin supply was abundant, the transpor- 

 tation facilities of the country brought it to 

 every man's door, where it practically drove 

 the inferior timber from culled and second- 

 growth woodlands and from farmers' woodlots 

 out of the market. Although today the supply 

 of virgin timber is decreasing with unprece- 

 dented rapidity, the American timbers found 

 in the markets of the country are nearly all 

 from virgin stands. But wait! The story has 

 not been told. Tomorrow the supply must 

 come from lands that have already been culled 

 and cut. 



Some Lumber Statistics. 



Last year the total lumber production of 

 the country was not far from 40,000,000,000 

 board feet. This is exclusive of shingles, lath, 

 poles, posts, fuel, and a vast multitude of minor 

 materials which the forest produces. Prob- 

 ably, in the aggregate, other uses than for lum- 

 ber consume more wood, though of inferior 

 grades, than that taken for lumber itself. Do 

 you realize what forty billion feet of lumber 

 means? It would cover a walk with inch 

 boards six feet wide that would extend from 

 the earth to the moon and more than as far 

 again out into space beyond. 



Are we lessening the consumption of wood 

 with the rapid decrease in the supply? No! 

 Far from it. We are increasing the consump- 

 tion. There is no adequate substitute for 

 wood in the industries and arts, and there can 

 be none so long as wood is obtainable. Is 

 this enormous consumption of timber by the 

 American people going to continue? In my 

 opinion it is, so long as the timber from 

 our virgin forests is able to supply it. Today 

 the great lumber markets of the east are draw- 

 ing their supply of white pine from Maine 

 and the lake states, sugar pine from Califor- 

 nia, western pine from Idaho, spruce from 

 New England and Washington, hemlock from 

 the lake states, Pennsylvania and the Pacific 

 coast, fir from Washington and Oregon, red- 

 wood from California, cypress from the gulf 

 states, and southern pine from every state 

 from Virginia to Texas. Among the hard- 

 woods, oak is drawn from Kentucky and Ten- 

 nessee, ash from Michigan and Maine, hick- 

 ory from the southern Appalachians, cotton- 

 wood and gum from Missouri, and tulip from 

 Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. Every 

 important supply of virgin timber iri America 

 is today being drawn upon for these great 

 markets, and they will be continued to be 

 drawn upon until every stick is gone. What 

 then? Do any of you within reach of my 

 voice say there will not be a famine in the 

 lumber supply of -the country when the virgin 

 stand is gone? It is as sure to come as it 

 is that night shall follow day. What are 

 the American people going to do about it? 

 What are you as farmers of Michigan going 

 to do about it? It takes 50 to 200 years to 

 mature a crop of timber. Are you going 

 to wait until the virgin supply is all gone, 

 or are you going to begin now to prepare 

 for this famine, the acuteness of which must 

 be governed by your present activity? 



What Can Be Accomplished. 



Do I hear you ask what can be done? Let 

 me tell you. You who are lumbermen go 

 home and study the great stretches of sandy 

 barrens, now desolate and useless, from which 

 you cut in the years gone by a forest growth 

 which made Michigan renowned around the 

 world. Ask yourself if these lands, which 

 in this state cover millions of acres, and which 

 are wholly unfit for agriculture, are of any 

 use to you or the state of Michigan? You 

 have already answered this, in that you have 

 permitted acre after acre to revert to the 

 state through tax sales. You who are farm- 

 ers go home and study the productive capacity 

 of your fields and the condition of your wood- 

 lots. Ask yourself, is the productive capacity 

 of all the fields of my farm of sufficient fer- 

 tility to justify their cultivation for agricul- 

 tural crops? Ask yourself, are my woodlots 

 receiving the attention that their economic 

 importance justifies; are they producing in an- 

 nual increment as much wood as they ought, 



and of valuable species and of high quality? 

 I ask you lumbermen and farmers of Michi- 

 gan to ask yourselves these questions, because 

 it is to these great stretches of sandy barrens, 

 now worthless to you and the state, and to 

 your neglected and misused woodlots, that 

 Michigan must turn in the near future for her 

 timber supplies. If Michigan is to hold her 

 place among the great timber producing states 

 of the Union, if lumber is to continue as one 

 of the great resources of the state, your waste 

 lands must be put to use and your neglected 

 woodlots must be made more productive. 



Must Have State Reserves. 



In order to bring this about, persistent ef- 

 fort is required on the part of the state and 

 individual effort on the part of the farmer. 

 The state of Michigan is already on the right 

 track in her policy of acquirivig state reserves, 

 but she must not be satisfied with the few 

 thousand acres in state forests that she now 

 has. The policy should continue until all the 

 large bodies of strictly non-agricultural lands 

 are owned by the state and made into state 

 forests. Call this communism, paternalism, 

 or what you please. The future prosperity 

 of Michigan depends upon making these lands 

 productive. I do not believe they will be made 

 productive if left to individual effort. The 

 history of forestry development in Europe 

 clearly shows that the forests cannot be left 

 wholly to the individual. Man is too selfish, 

 the span of life -is too short. The state has 

 no fixed span of life; she lives on forever. 

 The forests are safer in her keeping. 



This policy of acquiring was"te lands for 

 state forests is comparatively new in this 

 country. Already, however, at least ten states 

 Tiave begun to acquire non-agricultural lands 

 for such purposes. This is just a beginning. 

 In the next half century state forestry will 

 become the dominant forest development of 

 the country. In my opinion, it will not be 

 many years before every state will have state 

 forests under the management of an efficient 

 and trained forest service. It is sure to come; 

 it is inevitable. 



There is no state in the Union in which 

 state forests are more desirable or will ulti- 

 mately return to the state a larger revenue 

 on present expenditures than the State of 

 Michigan. Not only have thousands of acres 

 in this state been acquired by the state be- 

 cause of the non-payment of taxes, and which, 

 with few exceptions, should be made into 

 state forests, but large additional areas, at 

 present non-productive, can be purchased to- 

 day for a mere nominal sum often for a 

 dollar and a half per acre. 



Michigan Should Have 5,000,000 Acres of 

 Forests. 



Michigan, with an area of nearly 38,000,000 

 acres, should have at least .">,UOO,000 acres of 

 her non-agricultural lands in state forests. In- 

 stead of lying idle these lands should be put 

 into condition to yield a future annual income 

 (if from $2 to $4 per acre, which, in my opin- 

 ion, they arc perfectly capable of producing. 

 During the next twenty years, Michigan 

 should expend $500,000 per year in the pur- 

 chase of land for state forests and in the 

 improvement and management of them. This 

 is no chimerical scheme; it is sound states- 

 manship. You may say that the state is not 

 capable to expend this large sum in forest 

 conservation and forest management. I ask 

 you, as citizens of this commonwealth, can- 

 not the state well afford to spend the sum 

 nf ten million dollars to render a property, 



