MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



FORESTRY SITUATION 



IN A NUTSHELL. 



(By Prof. Filibert Roth.) 



With the Great Conference About to Take 

 Place it may be of Interest to Review Brief- 

 ly the Situation as Far as the Forests of 

 Our Country is Concerned. 



Peculiarities of the Forest which Enter into a 

 Discussion of Forestry from the Stand- 

 point of Political Economy. 



1. Time element ; it takes many years to make 

 a finished crop. Timber in Germany is cut at 

 an average of about ninety years. 



2. The growth of each successive year, on 

 any acre, i. e., the part which corresponds to 

 the farmer's crop of the same years, is held 

 for years, and thus remains on the land as 

 visible and taxable property. 



3. A large part of the timber crop may ac- 

 tually be used cut and sold long before the 

 forester declares it ripe. For instance, if the 

 timber is to be cut at ninety years, it may be 

 cut and sold at fifty years, and thus for forty 

 years it will be regarded by different persons 

 as ripe and properly taxable. 



4. The land used for forest is usually cheap 

 land. The tree growth makes up the larger part 

 of the property. Thus, the forests of Wur- 

 temberg have for years brought a net revenue 

 of over $4.50 per acre. Capitalized at 3 per 

 cent, they are worth $150 per acre; but the 

 land itself would be dear at $30 per acre, and 

 would not be worth $10 for agricultural pur- 

 poses. 



5. The capital used in forestry is large, the 

 amount of labor small (capital intensive, labor 

 extensive). Two dollars per acre a year is a 

 liberal expenditure in forestry (average for entire 

 property) ; in farming $10 per acre a year is but 

 fair. 



6. The net return in forestry is great and 

 safe ; and, considering the land used, is extraordi- 

 nary. The state forests of Saxony, Wurttem- 

 berg and Baden aggregate over a million acres, 

 and have for years exceeded $4 net income per 

 acre a year. 



7. The forest improves the soil and prevents 

 its washing. The forest can use poor lands 

 which otherwise become useless waste, because 

 it has the soil-conserving and improving quality. 

 The forest can use frosty locations, i. e., altitudes 

 and latitudes where farming fails. This feature 

 of the forest is of national importance, as it 

 affects the use of several hundred million acres 

 in the United States and Canada. 



8. Forestry is most successful in the hands 

 of the state, and least with small private owners, 

 with their frequent, temporary shifts. 



Forests and the People. 



1. Timber supply. Wood is still a necessity, j 

 and there is no reasonable prospect of its becom- | 

 ing less so. We use more wood per capita than 

 ever before ; the same is true of all progressive 

 people. 



In Europe all states which have less than 35 

 per cent of the land in forest are timber .im- 

 porters. This is true even of Germany. Wood 

 is bulky; its transport is relatively costly. 



Timber can be grown, coal is mined, and the 

 future must bring a return from the extensive 

 use of coal, as the mines give out. 



Prices of timber for 100 years have been more 

 steady, and have increased more regularly, than 

 those of any other raw material. 



2. Forest and water supply. Agriculture, 

 water power and all interests connected with 

 and dependent upon a regular supply and dis- 

 tribution of water, are injuriously affected by 

 wholesale removal of forests. We feel this in 

 Michigan today, much more so in Pennsylvania. 



:;. Use of land. In Iowa, where 95 per cent 

 of all land is good plow land, we need no forest 

 to utilize the soil. In Michigan, where nearly 

 one-third of the area of the state has been lying 

 idle and waste for many years, and is not used 



now, the forest can help us derive a crop from 

 the land, and maintain local industries and the 

 beauty of the district. As stated above, this fea- 

 ture alone affects many millions of acres of land 

 in New England, the south, the lake region, and 

 in all mountain countries, east and west. 



Forestry Abroad. 



1. Historic. Forestry, as the conservative 

 use and protection of the forest, began (appar- 

 ently) in Charlemagne's time. As early as the 

 year 1000 there is record of definite ownership, 

 demarcation and protection of forests. 



About the year 1200 the villages still owned 

 about 50 per cent of all forest in Germany; 

 clearing of forest is forbidden in many localities ; 

 regulations were in use concerning the exploita- 

 tion and protection of woods : regular foresters 

 were employed in places. 



As early as 1304, Emperor Albrecht ordered 

 the reforestation of devasted grounds in the Pala- 

 tinate ; similar reforestations were made at Nu- 

 remburg. 



At this time the "sachsen spiegel" and the 

 "schwaben Spiegel" were used as the recorded 

 laws and customs, including forest laws, and, 

 these distinguished between trespass in forest and 

 theft, and boundary marks were protected, etc. 



As early as 1400 forests in south Germany were 

 worked by regular plans ; foresters were uni- 

 versally employed; sowing and planting forests 

 were established practices in Germany ; laws and 

 regulations concerning the use and treatment of 

 forests were common ; clearing of forest was for- 

 bidden (except by special permit) ; the traffic in 

 timber, use of streams in driving and rafting, 

 was regulated by law. 



By the year 1650 Germany and France had 

 worked out practically all of the now existing 

 laws and policies. Thus Wurttemberg today oper- 

 ates practically under the law of 1614, which was 

 merely a revision of the law of 1515, the oldest 

 of the regular "landesordnungen" concerning 

 forestry. The law of 1614 remained practically 

 unchanged until 1879. 



In France King Phillip mentions (1291) the 

 "Maitres des eaux et forets," and a regular 

 state forest organization was formed through 

 the laws of 1346 and following. But the great 

 forest law of France was that of 1669; its 

 father was Colbert. 



By the year 1600 practically all of the measures 

 now used by the foresters of Germany were in 

 use then, and were quite generally known. The 

 scarcity of timber was felt locally because trans- 

 port was restricted to waterways. In 1713 Carlo- 

 witz published his "Silvicultura oeconomica" in 

 Leipzig, in the German language. Today Ger- 

 many, Austria, France, Russia; and most other 

 countries of Europe own and operate large state 

 forests and have well established forest laws 

 and policies. 



There is a general return to a more conserva- 

 tive policy, to a more thorough state control of 

 all forest property; and universally there is a 

 practice now of the states taking up poor, run- 

 down lands and reforesting, either as state forests 

 or as communal forests to be worked at the 

 state's expense, entire or partial. In other words. 

 Europe knows, by centuries of experience, that 

 farming on poor lands leads to waste land, and 

 should be avoided, and can be avoided by use of 

 forest. 



What forestry has done for Germany may be 

 summed up thus : Germany has a little over 

 32,000,000 acres of forests, covering 25.8 per cent 

 of the land area: Of this, about two-thirds is 

 coniferous woods, pine and spruce. About 33 

 per cent of all woods belong to the states, 46 

 per cent to private persons, 16 per cent to villages 

 and cities, and nearly 4 per cent to corporations 

 (church, etc.). These forests have produced for 

 years, regularly every year, over 1,200,000.000 

 cubic feet of wood and thus supplied the home 

 needs, encouraged many valuable industries, pro- 

 duced a crop, and furnished labor on lands largely 

 unsuited to any other use. These forests have 

 grown better for more than a century, and are 

 able today to produce more timber and yield 

 a larger money return than ever before. For 



the state forests, for which especially accurate 

 data exist as to money returns, the gross income 

 today, per acre a year, is over $5 for most 

 of the states, and is over $3 for Prussia, and 

 over $4 for Bavaria, where large areas of ex- 

 ceedingly poor lands are included in the proper- 

 ties. It is probably not far amiss to say that 

 the state forests furnished an income of $4 per 

 acre, or over $40,000,000 per year, and that all 

 German forests furnish a yield worth over $100,- 

 000,000 per year for stumpage alone. That this 

 sum expresses only a part of the total value to 

 the people of Germany, and that the indirect 

 benefits, through industries, etc., means a large 

 additional value, goes without saying. 



To sum up. Forestry in Europe is old; it is 

 a well established and successful industry and is 

 of vast value to the people of the states where 

 it is practiced. It is fully appreciated by the 

 people and their governments ; it is well secured 

 by law and well-established general policy, which 

 latter is no longer a matter of force but of general 

 understanding. 



Legislation in Europe. 



The states of Europe have for centuries exer- 

 cised special control over forest property, real- 

 izing its peculiarities as a property, and they also 

 have modified taxation to suit these peculiarities 

 and make forestry possible as a business. Forest 

 legislation is well illustrated by conditions in 

 Germany, and generally comprises : 



1. Laws forbidding clearing of forest, except 

 by permit of proper authority. 



2. "Devastations verbot." prohibiting misuse 

 and devastation of property. 



3. Supervision over forest property, i. e., woods 

 of villages and towns. 



4. Ownership, purchase, sale and operation of 

 forests by the state itself. 



5. Adaptation of tax laws (assessment) to 

 forest property, universally tending to assessment 

 based on net income of property. 



6. Encouragement of forestry by aid (money, 

 advice, plant material, etc.), and by exemption 

 from taxation. 



7. Laws relating to "protection forests'' ; that 

 is, declaring and treating specially such forests 

 as are believed to safeguard water supply, and 

 where their removal would lead to waste-land 

 conditions. The conception here is that forest 

 protects land and water. 



8. Protection by special regulations as part of 

 general police laws. 



9. Laws regulating timber traffic (tariff laws). 



10. Special consideration of timber on all state 

 railways. In Wurttemberg and Baden all forest 

 property is under state control ; no land may be 

 cleared or devastated ; in Prussia and Saxony, 

 private land is free. The tendency is to more 

 general control. 



Even Switzerland, after fifty years of fight, 

 has had to adopt state control to prevent general 

 devastation of her mountain forests. 



Present Conditions in the United States. 



1. Ownership More than three-quarters ol 

 the valuable forest (leave out western mountain 

 wastes) is in private hands. In the east half 

 of the United States practically all forest is in 

 private hands. The United States controls about 

 ir.o.ooo.ooo acres of actual woods. New York 

 about l.:>00.n<:0. 



2. Condition A large part of our forest is 

 in small parcels (woodlots of farmers) ; in some 

 states there are no large forests left at all. Over 

 80 per cent of our woods in the United States 

 are cut over and in a more or less devastated 

 condition, unable to produce much timber until 

 put in better shape, requiring time and money. 



:;. Timber Supplies. This is variously .estimat- 

 ed at thirty to fifty years. This only is certain: 

 Present cut and consumption cannot go on for 

 thirty years. Only about one-quarter of the 

 United States is wooded today; we are unable, 

 in any case, to continue to supply our present 

 consumption of timber. 



4. Present treatment. Generally heedless, 

 wasteful ami destructive cutting is now going 



