MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



OAcial Org.n ot The M*hign Ro*d Mikfn Allocation *nd Michigan Fotntiy 



SUITE 1406 MAJESTIC BUILDING DETROIT. MICHIGAN 



Frank E. Carter Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 

 THE STATE REVIEW PUBLISHING CO., 



SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, 

 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



SEPARATE FOREST LANDS. 



The lumber man, the wood storer and others 

 who handle lumber seem yet to think that 

 there is an abundance of lumber and timber, 

 and from all appearances there would seem to 

 be a large amount of lumber, at least, as lum- 

 ber yards are filled with lumber, and about 

 every paper devoted to lumber that one picks 

 up has articles on the overabundance of sawed 

 lumber. Everyone should know that our for- 

 est supply is nearly exhausted. Many of the 

 most valuable timbers have already disap- 

 peared, and yet to all appearances the same 

 feverish haste of the early lumbering days yet 

 prevails when owners of timber land seemed 

 possessed with the sole idea of cutting their 

 timber lands as rapidly as possible. Why does 

 such a condition prevail? is often asked. The 

 answer is that the enormous profits of lumber- 

 ing attracted many men who went into the 

 business simply to reap returns as rapidly as 

 possible. This class of lumberman has been 

 likened to the gold miner who looks only for 

 the nuggets, and leaves the steady working of 

 the field to the man who is content to take 

 the gold out gradually. The excessive taxa- 

 tion of forest lands has been a factor in the 

 rapid cutting of timber tracts. The tax ques- 

 tion is a hard on to solve. As I have pointed 

 out in former articles, one solution of the 

 question would be the separation of agricul- 

 tural and forest lands. All kinds of lands are 

 now classed as agricultural lands, whether 

 they be fit for farming or not. With the sep- 

 aration of forest from agricultural lands, a 

 more equitable system of taxing the forest 

 lands would follow. I trust the time will soon 

 come when every acre of land not available for 

 agriculture will be placed on a permanent for- 

 est reserve, either by the national or state gov- 

 ernments. C. H. GOETZ, 

 Forester for H. M. Loud & Sons, Au Sable, 



Mich. 



LOUISIANA'S PROPOSED FOREST LAW 



If the legislature of Louisiana passes the 

 forestry law proposed by Governor Blanchard 

 of that state, and said to have the support of 

 the largest timber owners, it will be the most 

 advanced step yet taken by any state to regu- 

 late timber cutting on private lands. By the 

 terms of the proposed statute, the cutting of 

 trees under 12 inches in diameter, four feet 

 from the ground, will not be permitted. The 

 law does not apply to those, who. in good 

 faith, wish to clear the land for agricultural 



purposes, or who need the timber on the 

 ground for roads or ditches, or in case of 'an 

 owner or tenant who uses the wood for dom- 

 estic purposes. 



The lumberman will be required to fell his 

 trees and the refuse must not be left where its 

 presence in a way to cause least damage to 

 young timber, will invite fire or otherwise en- 

 clanger the small trees. The penalty provided 

 for violations of the proposed law is a fine of 

 $25 to $100 for each offense, and imprisonment 

 may be added. Each tree wrongfully cut will 

 constitute a separate offense. The proposed 

 law not only delimits offenses and names pen- 

 alties, but also sets forth the reasons why such 

 a law is thought advisable. Timber is becom- 

 ing scarce, it says, and ought not 'be needlessly 

 wasted. Forest destruction will carry with it 

 other evils besides dearth of wood. It will 

 cause destruction, soil erosion, and increase 

 floods and droughts, to the damage of the 

 whole people. The forests ought not be 

 wholly cut down, the proposed law further 

 says, because they assist in obstructing disas- 

 trous tornadoes. 



The supreme court of Maine recently ruled 

 that that state may lawfully restrict the clear- 

 ing of privately-owned forest land, if the pub- 

 lic would be injured by such clearing. Louisi- 

 ana's proposed law goes still further in the 

 same direction and follows the lines of the 

 opinion rendered by the Maine supreme court. 

 It is worthy of note that the twp states which 

 are first to take this advanced stand in forest 

 protection are fifteen hundred miles apart and 

 have forests' not at all alike in character, dif- 

 ferent soils, climates with few points in com- 

 mon, crops of wholly different kinds, geog- 

 raphy and topography of opposite extremes, 

 yet each realizes the immense importance of 

 its forests and how essential their protection is 

 to the continued prosperity of its people. 



KINGSTON'S AGED OAK. 



"I was at Kingston during the Clinton re- 

 burial ceremonies on Decoration Day," said a 

 New York man, "and I stood a while beneath 

 the branches of what is perhaps one of the 

 most remarkable old oak trees to be found 

 anywhere in this country. 



"Just how old the tree is no one knows, but 

 there are records showing that 260 years ago 

 it was a landmark. The tree stands today 

 more than 100 feet high and its trunk is nine 

 feet in diameter. Nowhere about it did I dis- 

 cover any sign of decay or declining vigor. 



"But aside from its admirable physical con- 

 dition and aspect this old tree has historic in- 

 terest. The tree stands not a great way from 

 the old Senate House, where the State of New 

 York had its birth, and it marks one edge of a 

 plot on which the famous one-legged Dutch 

 Governor of the colony, Peter Stuyvesant, 

 built a stockade as a defense for the colonists 

 against marauding Indians. 



"After the Revolutionary War, when Gen. 

 Washington went up from Newburgh to visit 

 Gen. George Clinton at Kingston, the two 

 patriots sat beneath the spreading branches 

 of this oak and for hours recounted the events 

 of the long struggle and doubtless discussed 

 plans for the future welfare of the country. 

 Who may know but that some of the benefits 

 which we enjoy today under the institutions 



of our government are results of the discus- 

 sions of those two great patriots beneath this 

 grand old tree? I brought myself to think so, 

 at any rate, 



"A few miles from this historic old oak, an 

 old resident informed me, is another tree 

 which, besides being an ancient landmark, is 

 something of a curiosity. It is a chestnut 

 tree, with a trunk twenty-one feet in circum- 

 ference, from which, about six feet from the 

 ground, a white elm of large size has grown. 

 The chestnut trunk completely incloses that of 

 the elm, and the explanation of the curious as- 

 sociation is that at some time a branch of the 

 chestnut was broken off, leaving a cavity in 

 which in time mould and vegetable matter col- 

 lected and made suitable depth of soil for the 

 seed of the elm, which lodged therein to germ- 

 inate and grow and become a tree, a veritable 

 part of its protesting host, the mammoth 

 chestnut trunk." 



WOODLOTS OF JAPAN. 



In these times of great drains on the timber 

 supply, caused by the heavy demand for forest 

 products of all kinds, Americans may see in 

 Japan an example of what can be done in 

 growing wood on small plots. 



That country contains 21,000,000 woodlots, 

 about three-fourths of which belong to private 

 persons and one-fourth to communes. The 

 average size of the plot is less than nine-tenths 

 of an acre. They usually occupy the steepest, 

 roughest, poorest ground. In this way land is 

 put to use which would otherwise go to waste 

 and if unwooded would lose its soil by the 

 wash of the dashing rains. From Japan's 

 woodlots the yearly yield of lumber is about 

 88 feet, board measure, an acre and three- 

 fourths of a cord of firewood. In many cases 

 the yield is much higher. More than 500,000,- 

 000 trees are planted yearly to make up what 

 is cut for lumber and fuel. 



Assessment for taxation is low, averaging 

 for the 21,000,000 lots less than $1 an acre. 

 With all the care in cutting and the industry 

 in replanting, it is by no means certain that 

 Japan's forests are holding their own. If the 

 preservation of the forests is doubtful there, it 

 is evident that depletion must be alarmingly 

 rapid in other countries which cut unsparingly 

 and plant very little. On the other hand, it is 

 encouraging to see what can be done with 

 rough, steep and poor land. The United 

 States has enough of that kind, without touch- 

 ing the rich agricultural acres, to grow billions 

 of feet of lumber. 



FURNACE TAR FOR ROADS. 



It is proposed to test the tar that is one of 

 the byproducts at the North Marquette fur- 

 nace of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company in 

 the treatment of the macadam streets at Mar- 

 quette. Some of this tar is burned at the fur- 

 nace, but none of it is marketed. It is thought 

 that it may perhaps answer as well as Tarvia, 

 or any of the patented preparations in serving 

 as a binder for the crushed rock used on the 

 streets, if it is applied properly. Some of the 

 tar will be used between Baraga avenue and 

 Rock street, on Fifth street. If it answers the 

 purpose there it will be experimented with 

 further. 



