MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



WASTE LAND AND 



FOREST GROWTH. 



The writer of a popular tree book once 

 stated that the white pine of our northeastern 

 states was destined to disappear except for 

 ornamental purposes. There are many rea- 

 sons to believe that that time will never come, 

 yet the nature and habits of the tree and the 

 short-sigtedness of the people make the state- 

 ments more than a mere suspicion. 



Not a great many years ago, within the 

 white pine region, there were magnificent 

 stands of old growth pine. Every old inhab- 

 itant today will tell you how they stood on 

 his father's farm when he was a boy, their 

 clear, straight trunks and gnarled flat tops 

 high above everything else. Many an old 

 house back in the country has floor boards and 

 cupboard doors that are more than three feet 

 wide, which were made from such trees. 



Old Monarchs Gone. 



These old monarchs of the northern forests 

 are gone now except for isolated trees or 

 clumps scattered widely over the region. A 

 woodlot owner recently guided me several 

 miles back into the hills in order to point out 

 three magnificent pines which have been 

 standing probably for more than 250 years. 

 One could never mistake them from others of 

 a later generation. 



Before the advent of the portable sawmill, 

 it was unprofitable to cut and haul logs any 

 great distance to market. 



The trees were felled, rolled together and 

 burned when new lands were cleared. "Log 

 rolling" days are still pleasant memories to 

 Xew England's oldest inhabitants. Those were 

 the days of the large farms with great herds 

 of cattle and many oxen. Sheep roamed the 

 hills in far. greater numbers than they ever do 

 today. Immense areas were required for pas- 

 turage, and extensive fields supplied the hay 

 and grain for the winter feed. Ox pastures 

 are not known today, yet they were common 

 in the days gone by. 



Today, farming has moved westward, and 

 large farms in the hills have been reduced or 

 abandoned entirely. It is true, of course, that 

 men have learned to cultivate small areas 

 often as profitably as their fathers did larger 

 tracts of land. Every industrious farmer went 

 over his pastures each year and removed every 

 chance pine that had seeded from some adja- 

 cent tree. Now every wise farmer leaves the 

 young trees to grow. 



Acres of New Trees. 



It may not be very strange to know then 

 that today there are more acres actually grow- 

 ing trees than there were 50 or 60 years ago. 

 There is not more timber, of course, for much 

 of the valuable forests have been removed 

 within the last 50 years. Such land is now 

 covered with a poor quality of hardwoods. 

 The valuable forests today are the old fields 

 and pastures which have grown up to pine. 



Everyone knows that boardleaf trees, such 

 as birch, maple and oak, usually take the place 

 of pine when it is cut. The pines do not sprout 

 as a rule, and when a pine forest has been cut 

 over without leaving any trees for seed, there 

 is no chance for young pines to again occupy 

 the land. Worthless birch and maple, with 

 their light seeds, usually take possession of the 

 cut-ovr lands. 



This type becomes known as sprout growth 

 and is of little value to mankind. White pine, 

 deprived of its right to the cut-over lands, is, 

 however, the predominating tree of the aband- 

 ond fields. The owners no longer cut down 

 the young pines, but encourage their growth. 

 In a suitable soil, with sufficient light and with 

 occasional mature trees to supply the seeds, 

 the abandoned fields alone are providing for 

 our future commercial timber. 



Value of New Pine Growth. 



.\ southern New Hampshire lumberman re- 

 cently stated that if he had left a few sturdy 



pines for seed trees on the wood lots he has 

 lumbered during the last 30 years, the presenr 

 value of the young growth would be worth 

 more than all the timber lie has cut during his 

 lifetime. There are thousands of acres of 

 hud. once growing pine, which are now pro- 

 ducing nothing better than gray birch and ma- 

 ple. Often lircs have been allowed to burn 

 over the ground until t-he only growth remain- 

 ing is scrubby and worthless. But fires are 

 not the menace they used to be. Farmers are 

 learning the value of young pine growth and 

 the starting of fires to clear land is not com- 

 mon. Fires .-.et alongside woods and by care- 

 less boys are now the most serious ones. 



With increased safety to forest growth, 

 planting becomes more and more a desirable 

 investment. Every acre of land should be 

 producing something of value to its owner's is 

 the general opinion of every land owner in 

 this era of progress. The planting of white 

 pine is often the only means of getting an 

 income from some lands. All the vacant land 

 and pastures cannot seed themselves, and the 

 cost of planting them will soon be paid for by 

 the increased value of the land. 



15ul many people say, "It will never do me 

 any good. I will never live long enough to 

 realize anything from my labor and expense." 

 Experience of hundreds has shown this is a 

 grave mistake. One does not have to wait un- 

 til their planted lands have grown merchanta- 

 ble timber. Everywhere people are seeking to 

 invest their money in young timber, and they 

 are willing to pay good prices for it. 



Seeding Up Waste Lands. 



Many farmers are planting all their vacant 

 and worthless land with pine and chestnut and 

 are buying similar land of other people for the 

 same purpose. Where the expense of the op- 

 eration is $10 or $12 per acre, in a few years 

 the land will be worth $40 or $50. Such in- 

 vestments easily bring 5 to 7 per cent interest 

 to the owner on his money invested. I't is lit- 

 tle realized that growing trees on the rough 

 New England hillsides can with a little care be 

 made to accumulate a cord of wood per acre 

 annually. Such is the case, however, and it is 

 needless to say that one does not have to in- 

 vest his earnings in copper or other doubtful 

 stock from which he may never see any re- 

 turns. 



There are rnany ways by which an owner 

 may seed up his waste land with pine. Some 

 people have met with fair success by gather- 

 ing the cones early in the fall before they open, 

 drying them out, and scattering, the seeds dur- 

 ing the winter or early spring. It is well to 

 drop the seeds, a few together, in spots pre- 

 viously cleared'of grass or turf, and then press 

 them into the soil with the foot. 



Successful planting of wild seedlings is often 

 done by transplanting little trees growing in 

 thick bunches or in the shade where they can 

 never mature. The most successful planting 

 is done with trees two or three years old 

 bought from nursery men and set out five or 

 six feet apart each way. This should be done 

 in the early spring before the growth starts. 

 Chestnuts should be kept in moist sand over 

 winter and planted in the spring. They grow 

 rapidly. 



Forest as Good as Any Crop. 



The advance in prices of lumber and the ex- 

 tensive box and cooperage mills throughout 

 the northeast, have made sad inroads on our 

 limber lands. Not only is the old growth tim- 

 ber largely gone, but lumbermen even find a 

 profit in trees that are scarcely six inches in 

 diameter. The time is past when trees can be 

 allowed to grow to immense size. It is fig- 

 ured that_pine yields the greatest returns for 

 the money invested between the ages of 40 

 and 60 years. Chestnut requires even less 

 time. 



Those who have studied the matter say that 

 the tiem is at hand when the forests are to be 

 considered as crops to be planted, thinned and 

 harvested like other crops. When this prac- 

 tice becomes more universal ai1 people learn 



more clearly the value of growing timber, 

 there will not be thousands of acres of unpro- 

 ductive land in every state, constant eyesores 

 to the people, and yielding no returns to the 

 owners. 



The United States forest service at Wash- 

 ington furnishes, free of charge, pamphlets and 

 other information on the methods of planting 

 desirable species, and where the seeds and 

 young plants may be obtained, together with 

 range of prices. 



EXPORTS OF FOREST PRODUCTS. 



Uncle Sam's exports of forest products have 

 shown higher and higher values during the last 

 five or six years, although reports show that 

 there has not been a corresponding increase in 

 volume. For instance, the quantity of sawed 

 timber exported from this country has in- 

 creased less than 12 per cent in the last four 

 years, while the value has increased over 50 

 per cent. Again, the amount of rosin exported 

 has increased but little, while the price has 

 more than doubled. 



From 1 !)():> to 1906 the value of staves 

 showed very little increase, but in the year 1907 

 there was a decrease in the number exported 

 of about 10 per cent, together with an increase 

 in the price of about 120 per cent. This last 

 would seem to indicate a recognition of the 

 fact that the supply of the highest grades of 

 white oak is rapidly diminishing. The staves 

 exported are almost exclusively of the highest 

 grades of white oak and form about a fifth of 

 the annual production of white oak staves in 

 the United States. As might be supposed, a 

 large part 80 per cent of the staves went to 

 Europe, 40 per cent to France. The export 

 trade makes a heavy drain on the supply of 

 white oak. 



Boards deals, planks and sawed timber made 

 up 50 per cent of the total value of forest prod- 

 uct exports. Rosin ranks next, with nearly 10 

 per cent of the total value of these exports. 

 Spirits of turpentine follows, with about 10 per 

 cent. Four-fifths of the rosin and turpentine 

 go to Europe. 



The number of shingles exported has de- 

 creased fairly regularly since liHi:!. In 1907 

 there were shipped less than half the number 

 that were exported four years before. More 

 than 50 per cent of these shingles go to Mex- 

 ico, while less than 10 per cent were shipped to 

 ports outside of North America. This shows 

 how few shingles are in demand abroad. The 

 total exports of shingles represent less than 

 one-fifth of 1 per cent of the production of this 

 class of material in the United States. 



The amount of wood exported in the form of 

 hewn or sawed timber and lumber was about 7 

 per cent of the total lumber cut in the United 

 States in 1907. More yellow pine is exported 

 than any other kind of timber. The order is 

 yellow pine, Douglas fir, and redwood. Al- 

 though there are no figures which bear di- 

 rectly on the amount of yellow pine lumber 

 annually exported, it is estimated that at least 

 1.'! per cent of the yellow pine cut finds its 

 way to other countries. Probably a third of 

 the Douglas fir exported went to South Amer- 

 ica. 



The redwood exported forms an important 

 item. Australia and the Orient together took 

 40 per cent of the total and South America 32 

 per cent. The exports of redwood in 1907 

 were about five times what they were twelve 

 years ago and were larger than those of any 

 previous year. The shipments to Australia 

 and the Orient especially have been increasing 

 steadily during this period. The shipments to 

 South America of redwood, as well as a num- 

 ber of other forest products, has increased 

 greatly in the past two years. 



American-British tobacco enterprise already 

 has over 40 per cent of Corea's total cigarette 

 business. It also has over 50 per cent of the 

 entire Manchurian import trade and controls 

 the great bulk of all the tobacco business of 

 the Orient outside of Japan, which country ex- 

 ported 1,271,000,000 cigarettes in 1907. 



