MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



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of Tk MKhtgui Rod Miktri Axooit 

 06 MAJESTIC BUILDING 



nd Michigan Foitf> AivxuOon 

 DETROIT. MICHIGAN 



Frank E. Carter Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 



THE; STATE REVIEW PUBLISHING co., 



SUBSCRIPTION I ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, 

 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



IMPORTANT FORESTRY INQUIRY. 



The United States forestry department has 

 taken up the various subjects relating to the 

 timber conservations of this country and is 

 obtaining detailed information, not only as 

 to the actual remaining supply of timber, the 

 amount of the annual cut and the disposition 

 of the product, but also tax and all overhead 

 charges involved in holding and operating 

 both large and small timber properties. 



It is only when the blanks sent out by the 

 forestry department are carefully examined 

 that the scope of the inquiry becomes fully 

 apparent. It is known that a systematic effort 

 is being made to collect general information 

 on the subject, but the questions asked in the 

 blanks would be surely regarded as inquis- 

 itorial if beneficient intention was not so fully 

 apparent. Answers to questions in the for- 

 est protection blank will cover succiently: 

 The region where timber is situated; its acre- 

 age, species of wood, plan of cutting with 

 reference to future supply, fire protection and 

 its annual cost, and opinions regarding the 

 best method of conservative forest manage- 

 ment from a business point of ivew. 



Regarding forest taxation, it is to learn: 

 Location of tract, influences of taxation on all 

 lumbering operations and whether a reduced 

 tax would lead to conservation of young 

 growth; whether state legislation has been 

 adopted on tax lines and its good and bad 

 points. The circular regarding mill opera- 

 tions apparently seeks for detailed informa- 

 tion regarding the disposition of all timber 

 products and is very curiously inquisitive re- 

 garding seemingly trifling details. Yet the 

 object is not only plain, but laudable from an 

 exhaustive statistical point of view. Among 

 things it asks is: The location of the mills, 

 our average lumber cut, how many of nine 

 different classes of saws are used, and all 

 facts pertaining to the making of boards, lath, 

 shingles, quarter saw, and in fact all kinds of 

 lumber used; also all kinds of machinery nec- 

 essary for putting any form and kind of wood 

 in marketable shape. It will be very readily 

 seen by the full scope of the questions in this 

 full line of circulars that the forestry bureau 

 is placing itself in direct touch with all feat- 

 ures of our timber and lumber manufactur- 

 ing industries and will be in a position to 

 furnish information which will be of untold 

 value to men engaged in the industry. It 

 will, besides, furnish reliable statistics upon 

 which both federal and state legislation for 



the protection of our rapidly wasting timber 

 supply can be based. 



Muskegon needs, as much as any other 

 manufacturing town, with all her great nat- 

 ural advantages, this protection of our U. 

 S. foresttry department. Lena Wade Wood- 

 hull, in Muskegon Xews. 



THE DEATH OF THE FOREST. 



By Lillian H. Shucy. 

 The fiat went forth, from the spoilers 



The myrmidon sons of men 

 That the forest, the warder of rivers, 



Should pass from the valley and glen; 

 The forest, embracing the passes, 



Where the drifting sea-clouds bide, 

 Should lie as low as the heather 



Should die on the mountain side. 



And the murmuring groves on the ridges 



Heard in the morning still . - 



The ax-blows resounding, repeating 



The rumble and roar of the mill. 

 The vast forest mourned to the brooklets: 



"Beloved, the hour has come. 

 The Day God will drink at thy spring-pools, 



And the voice of .thy music be dumb. 



"Xo more wilt thou well to the valleys 



Where children are glad and sweet. 

 No more wilt thou mirror their faces, 



And ripple around their feet. 

 Farewell! lovely streams, overflowing, 



The grasses thou lovest will fail; 

 Xo more wilt thou gleam for the homestead, 



The orange and peach in the vale." 



The birds flew far and were silent, 



The west wind sobbed in pain, 

 And bore in the eve her teardrops 



To the barley blooms on the plain. 

 The forest stood, lofty, majestic 



The redwood, and cedar, and pine 

 The forest, preserver of nations, 



The crown of God's great design. 



But the deed was done in its madness, 



And the wind-swept mountains bare 

 Grieve for the cool, sweet bowers 



And the kiss of raindrops there. 

 Men in the parching plain-lands 



Their long rain prayers avow, 

 But the bread and the wine are taken, 



And God does not answer now. 



Western World. 



UNCLE SAM'S NEW FORESTERS. 



Thirty-nine young graduates of nine Amer- 

 ican forest schools have lately received ap- 

 pointments as forest assistants in the forest 

 service and have been assigned to positions 

 fur the present field season. The new ap- 

 pointees are drawn from the various forest 

 schools as follows: Yale, 18; Biltmore, 5; 

 University of Minnesota, 4; University of 

 Michigan, 4; Michigan Agricultural College, 

 ::; Harvard, 2; Cornell, 1; University of Iowa, 

 1. and University of Nebraska. 1. They have 

 secured their appointments as a result of pass- 

 ing the regular civil service examination, 

 which is the only avenue to employment as a 

 forester under the government. In addition 



to these graduates of forest schools, fifteen 

 other candidates passed the examination. 



Twenty-two of the new appointees are al- 

 ready at work on various national forests, tak- 

 ing part in their administration, and seven- 

 teen have been assigned to different projects 

 connected with the technical study of silvi- 

 culture. Forest assistants are men who have 

 completed their preliminary training for the 

 profession of forestry, as the graduates of a 

 law or medical school have completed their's, 

 and are ready to enter on practical work. 

 Until they have gained experience in their 

 work .however, their positions are necessarily 

 subordinate. They are at the foot of the lad- 

 iler and must prove their fitness in order to 

 mount higher. The government pays them 

 $1,000 a year at the start. 



On the national forests the forest assistant 

 often acts as adviser to the supervisors in 

 charge, who are western men experienced in 

 all practical matters, but usually without 

 school training in the science of forestry. Or 

 they may be assigned to the study of some 

 particular problem which needs to be investi- 

 gated in the interest of good forest manage- 

 ment. As forestry means knowing how to 

 get the most out of any given piece of forest 

 land, it calls for studies and experiments, both 

 scientific and practical, much like those which 

 have to be made in the interests of good 

 farm management, and the forest assistant is 

 prepared to do valuable work along this line. 



AN INTERESTING COMPUTATION. 



George 15. llorton. master of the Michigan 

 State Grange, has three pieces of the mixed 

 hardwood timber two forties and one sixty 

 on his Fruit Range farm, in Lenawee County, 

 and he has engaged a forestry expert to make 

 a computation of it. Thirty-seven years ago 

 the three pieces passed to him from his father. 

 Xo trees have since been cut on it except those 

 that died. The particular thing the forestry 

 expert will do is to determine what the trees 

 would have been worth if cut thirty-seven 

 years ago and sold at the then market price, 

 and what they would sell for in the market 

 today. 



Mr. Horton believes that the demonstration 

 will show that by leaving the trees to grow 

 these thirty-seven years they have earned for 

 him a fair annual percentage on the money 

 the trees and land represented thirty-seven 

 years ago. If this is proven, he says, it cer- 

 tainly will be a convincing argument that re- 

 forestation, measured solely by the dollar 

 standpoint, is a good investment. 



"Tree tanglefoot" is what Charles W. Gar- 

 field, of Grand Rapids, president of the Michi- 

 gan forestry commission, and one of the most 

 active workers in the state for forest preserva- 

 tion, recommends for application to trees to 

 head off the Tussock moth. In reply to a 

 query from Henry G. Wanty. who was one of 

 the first in Muskegon to recognize the danger 

 in the invasion of this pest, Mr. Garfield says: 



"In reply to your query, the only name I 

 know for the sticky stuff which is used to put 

 on trees to head off the Tussock moth is Tree 

 Tanglefoot. 1' do not know of any substitute 

 that can possibly take its place. However, 

 the caterpillars that are on the trees and eat- 

 ing the leaves will not be injured by the Tan- 

 glefoot unless they drop down to the ground 

 and want to get up again." 



