MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS- 



MICHIGAN SHOWS 



NEED OF CONSERVATION 



The Lake states, one of the greatest forest 

 regions that ever contributed to the lumbering 

 activities of any country, are rapidly falling 

 behind in timber production, according to^a 

 preliminary statement just issued by the bu- 

 reau of the census. 



Statistics concerning the annual output of 

 forest products, collected by the bureau of the 

 census in co-operation with the United States 

 forest service, from more than 2,100 saw mill 

 operators in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minne- 

 sota the big three have shown that the cut 

 'last year was only five and half billion feet of 

 lumber, a big pile, yet 12 per cent, less than 

 the cut of the preceding year. 



The heayy inroads tnade in the exploitation 

 of. the timber resources of the large lumber 

 states on the Great Lakes have been too much 

 for the great forests and the amount available 

 for cutting is getting lower each year. The 

 decadence of the lumbering industry in this 

 region is forcefully illustrated in the drop in 

 the white pine cut during the past ten years. 

 Michigan's forests of this valuable tree were 

 the richest in the world and were often said to 

 be inexhaustible. The folly of such a state- 

 ment is shown by the report that the cut of 

 white pine in Michigan last year was only one- 

 fourth of what it was in 1899, only eight years 

 before. 



In lumbering the forests no thought was 

 given to anything but immediate money re- 

 turns, and consequently the countless fires 

 running over the land, after the timber was 

 stripped, have killed young growth over wide 

 areas and greatly impoverished the soil. Now 

 6,000,000 acres, or nearly one-sixth of the 

 State of Michigan, known as the "pine bar- 

 rens," have been thrown on the delinquent 

 tax list and are a burden to the people. Under 

 proper forest management this land would 

 have been producing timber today. Between 

 1899 and last year the white pine production 

 fell off nearly as much in Wisconsin as in 

 Michigan. In Minnesota, the State which now 

 contains the largest amount of virgin white 

 pine, the decrease in the same period was 

 nearly one-third. 



Taking the three states together, pine con- 

 stituted nearly forty-six per cent of the total 

 lumber production in 1907, hemlock a little 

 more than twenty-seven per cent, and maple 

 ten per cent., the balance being made up 

 mostly of basswood, birch, tamarack, elm, 

 beech, oak, spruce, ash and cedar,, in the order 

 given. The pine is mostly white and Norwmy, 

 which are grouped together under the general 

 term of "northern pines." Pine made up over 

 nine-tenths of the lumber produced in Minne- 

 sota, one-third of that produced in Wisconsin, 

 and less than two-fifths of the total cu,t of 

 Michigan. 



Along with this great decrease in pine, 

 there have been relatively as heavy decreases 

 in the most valuable of the hardwoods, oak, 

 elm and ash. Little more than one-fifth as 

 much oak was cut in the Lake states last year, 

 for instance, as in 1899, while the cut of elm 

 and ash was but half of that of eight years 

 earlier. As is always the case, the decreasing 

 supplies of the more valuable woods have 

 caused those once considered of little or no 

 value to be drawn upon heavily. This has 

 been particularly true with hemlock, so that 

 no more hemlock than pine lumber is manu- 

 factured in Wisconsin, and twice as much hem- 

 lock as pine is cut in Michigan. There have 

 been heavy increases in the use of maple, 

 birch and beech within the past few years, but 

 the maximum cut of these species is probably 

 near at hand; and taking all of the hardwoods 

 together, there has been a slight falling off 

 since 1899. 



PRIVATE REFORESTRATION. 



In speaking of forestry and lumbering oper- 

 ations, W. B. Mershon, a prominent Saginaw 

 Valley manufacturer, said: 



"I think the proposition of Georgian bay 

 lumbermen to restrict the output of their mills 

 25 per cent the current year is a good thing. 

 Trees should not be cut wantonly nor faster 

 than there is legitimate use for them. 



"Some years ago fifteen or twenty of us 

 bought the Wigleton property on the Luding- 

 ton division of the Pere Marquette, west of 

 Reed City, about 1,700 acres of land where W. 

 D. Wing had been conducting a lumber oper- 

 ation a number of years. We bought it for 

 the trout stream. About all the timber that 

 was considered worth anything at that time 

 had been taken off. A few young pine were 

 growing around the little lakes, and on the 

 plains the so-called scrub oak or red oak was 

 growing, but not of much size. Had we at 

 that time planted the land with Norway pine 

 the property would have been worth $100,000 

 today, for the scrub oaks in the eighteen or 

 twenty years we have owned the property 

 have become of good size, big enough to make 

 railroad ties and the little pines that were 

 around the lakes have now developed into 

 practically mercantile timber, and the forest 

 growth has developed to such an extent that 

 a photograph taken of the locality shows a 

 wonderful improvement over one taken of the 

 same place years ago. Three years ago we 

 put out 5,000 Norway and white pine trees 

 on this property and two years ago we put 

 out 15,000 more. The Norways were hard to 

 get, but white pines are easily obtained. This 

 year another planting was made, so that our 

 total for three years is 51,000. . Those planted 

 two years ago have grown well. This is for- 

 estry undertaken by a few gentlemen who 

 chipped in, so to speak, to defray expenses. 



The Au Sable forest farm purchased a cou- 

 ple of years ago by a few gentlemen, on the 

 north branch of the Au Sable, has just com- 

 pleted its first year's planting. About 35 acres 

 have been prepared so as to enable us to 

 plant 71.000 trees this year. Of course, we 

 had to take out the logs and rubbish that 

 might cause fire among the seedlings. We put 

 out 12,000 more trees in temporary beds for 

 transplanting next year and we hope by an- 

 other year to have sufficient land cleared up 

 so we can put out 100,000 trees, and two years 

 from now we hope to make our annual plant- 

 ing pretty nearly 1,000,000 trees. We estimate 

 that 4.000,000 trees will be required to refor- 

 est our property there. Norway is really 

 what should be planted. We have 15 pounds 

 of Norway seed planted this year and estimate 

 70,000 seedlings to the pound, but we should 

 have liked to have gotten three times this 

 quantity. We have also put out 1,200 bass- 

 wood and 1,000 black ash on the flats, for we 

 have a lot of rich bottom lands. We are also 

 experimenting some in growing cauliflower 

 and have made a planting of cherry trees, not 

 that we expect any revenue from this, except- 

 ing the revenue of satisfaction that follows 

 doing something for the future and for the 

 benefit of mankind in general. 



Fire has to be guarded against and we have 

 plowed fire breaks 20 feet wide around the 

 planted section and are now engaged in fenc- 

 ing 160 acres on which this planting is made 

 to keep the cattle out. This being done we 

 shall follow by putting fire breaks around the 

 entire property just as fast as possible and 

 keep a crew of men at work there all sum- 

 mer. The railroads set a lot of fires. When 

 I was up on the north branch recently fires 

 were burning fiercely and it was a shame to 

 see the destruction of young growth that was 

 taking place. White pine and Norway trees 

 eight and ten feet high were being con- 

 sumed by the . fires -set by the railroads, 

 though they had escaped other fires for years. 

 This was on account of no protection or pro- 

 vision for protection being made by the state 

 or private owners. 



SAGINAW'S TREE PLANTING. 



President W. S. Linton, of the Saginaw 

 Board of Trade, in his annual report, says: 



"Under the present regime there was, some 

 months ago, a Civic Improvement Association, 

 for the organization of which your board of 

 directors made the first appropriation of 

 money. This association not only distributed 

 10,000 trees, shrubs and vines, but by system- 

 atic work throughout the city created the 

 greatest interest in home and yard adornment. 



"By far the greatest effort in this direction, 

 however, was brought to a successful issue 

 this spring through the public spiritedness of 

 some of our citizens who contributed the 

 necessary cost of purchase, work and distribu- 

 tion, and to them in the years to come as the 

 planting matures, the city will certainly be 

 most grateful. The contributors to this fund 

 were Hon. W. R. Burt, Charles H. Davis, C. 

 K. Eddy & Sons, Hon. J. W. Fordney, Thomas 

 Jackson. John Jeffers, Dr. H. C. Potter. C. L. 

 Ring, Wallis Craig Smith and Ewin P. Stone." 



President Linton gave a list of the 50,000 

 trees, shrubs and vines planted. In his ad- 

 dress he thanked the Detroit & Mackinac Rail- 

 road Company for the evergreens supplied. 



YEW TREE 3,000 YEARS OLD. 



The oldest yew tree not only in Scotland, 

 but in Europe, grows at Fortingall, in Perth- 

 shire. According to a scientific calculation of 

 its age by the late Sir R. Christison it is at 

 least well over 3,000 years. If Sir Robert's 

 estimate is correct the Fortingall yew must 

 have been of "goodly size" at the time when 

 King Solomon reigned over Israel. 



The mill of the Little Current Lumber Co., of 

 Bay City, located at Little Current, Ont., has 

 started sawing for the season. This mill cut 

 out 30,000,000 feet of lumber last year and has 

 a full stock for this season's run. 



CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING. 

 Advertising in the classified col- 

 umns of the "State Review" 

 will be inserted at the rate of 7 

 cents per agate line. 



Help Wanted. 



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COLLECTOR Experienced collector, with best 

 of references, wanted at once ; good money for 

 right man. Business Men's Credit Exchange, 

 325 Hammond Bldg., Detroit. 



YOUNG MAN, good habits and scholar, position 

 to keep cost and material in sheet metal works. 

 W. J. Burton Co., 164 Larned st. west, Detroit. 



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