MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



STATES ARE PROFITING. 



Figures just made public by the United 

 States Forest Service show that under the new 

 law requiring 2.~> per cent of the gross proceeds 

 of national forest business to be paid over to 

 the states and territories in which the forests 

 arc located, to be used for public schools and 

 roads, the last li.scal year will yield these states 

 $447,063.79. 



The amounts which go to each vary from 

 $:!n.6S for Arkansas to more than $75,000 for 

 Montana. The small amount for Arkansas is 

 because the two national forests in that state 

 were created so recently that they are not yet 

 fairly under way. Oklahoma, with one small 

 national forest, receives $.">54; Kansas, $644, 

 and the next smallest after these is Nebraska, 

 with $2.:>.">0. Since the forests in these last 

 two states were set aside from land naturally 

 destitute of trees, that the government might 

 try forest planting on them, it will probably 

 surprise most people that they should yield 

 any revenue at all. 



National forest business is chiefly of three 

 kinds grazing, timber sales, and special uses, 

 the latter comprising the use of the lesser, re- 

 sources of the forest and the permits involv- 

 ing the development of water power. It is in- 

 teresting to note the states in which the larg- 

 est volume of these three kinds of business is 

 done and study the causes which make their 

 revenues correspondingly larger. 



Montana, California, and Colorado lead in 

 timely sales. In the case of Montana and 

 California this fact is mainly due to the acces- 

 sibility of the timber. The fact that the tim- 

 ber can be readily reached and quickly trans- 

 ported to market has created a heavy demand 

 which is Reflected in the volume of business. 

 Colorado is almost absolutely dependent upon 

 the national forest timber for its mining oper- 

 ations. Each of these states will receive over 

 $50,000 from the proceeds of the forests. 



Idaho, Utah, and Oregon head the list ot 

 states in grazing business. The causes in this 

 case are several. In the first place, these 

 states are supplied with more abundant for- 

 age, largely on account of more plentiful pre- 

 cipitation, in some cases the ranges will sup- 

 port one sheep to the acre, whereas the ranges 

 elsewhere will often support no more than one 

 sheep to- from four to six acres. 



Again, the grazing methods are as a rule 

 more intensive in these states, a higher class of 

 herders is employed, and a better grade of 

 stock is kept. Management, moreover, is more 

 intensive. Sheep are handled in small bands, 

 and the herders in running them are able to 

 keep them in scattered order, so that they do 

 not do so much damage to the range as does 

 the large band, which can be controlled only 

 when closely herded. Idaho's share of the re- 

 ceipts is over $56,000. 



California leads in special use business, part- 

 ly because of the large amount of water power 

 developed and partly because of the larger 

 population adjacent to the forests and drawing 

 upon their share of the national forest pro- 

 ceeds about $52,0(1(1. 



CUT OUT SOFT MAPLES. 



II. S. Reed, of Washington, D. C, soil ex- 

 pert in the federal Department of Agriculture, 

 accompanied by Mrs. Reed, was in Bay City 

 recently. Mr. Reed's work in Washington 

 has to do with the studying of various soils 

 and naturally includes a rather broad scope, 

 involving much of forestry, horticulture, flori- 

 culture and the raising of ordinary farm prod- 

 ucts. 



"Center avenue, in Bay City, is a beautiful 

 thoroughfare," said Mr. Reed, while discuss- 

 ing shade trees, parks, etc., and the work that 

 i- being done all over the country in civic 

 improvement. "But there are too many soft 

 maples. There are some beautiful elms here. 

 All of the streets have too many soft maol 

 and you should have other trees in the parks 

 The maples age quickly compared with the or 

 dinary life of trees, and they grow scrawny 

 and unsightly. Your city will be wise : f 



begins at once planting elms and other of the 

 better woods. They could be olanted between 

 the maples and could grow to a certain point, 

 when the maples should be cut down to give 

 the elms an opportunity to spread. By exer- 

 cising care you could transfer from the less 

 desirable to the better trees without losing 

 much either in appearance or shade during 

 the transition. The better class of trees would 

 be giving shade by the time the maples should 

 be cut. 



"It was no mistake of the Bay City park 

 commission to cut out trees in the parks, j 

 There are still more than enough. In a few ] 

 years the city will appreciate the work. When i 

 dealing with trees, things are not done in a 

 day." 



BUYS LUMBER CONCERN'S .PROP- 

 ERTY. 



Ily a purchase made in Grand Rapids at a re- 

 ceiver's sale of the business of the bankrupt Den- 

 nis Bros.' Lumber Company, C. L. Houseman, 

 one of Muskegon's prominent lumbermen, be- 

 came owner of the assets of that firm, with the 

 exception of some timber land in Kentucky and 

 Tennessee, which will be sold under the juris- 

 diction of those states. 



The purchase price paid for the business by 

 Mr. Houseman was $118,560. Whether he will 

 operate the business himself, or has made the 

 purchase as a speculation, Mr. Houseman de- 

 clines to state at the present time. 



The purchase includes, besides the business 

 proper, title stock in the Kelsey-Dennis Lumber 

 Company, of North Tonawanda, N. Y. ; in the 

 Dennis Salt and Lumber Company, farm at Oak- 

 field, lumber mills and stock at Reed City and 

 Big Rapids, Citizen's Telephone Company stock, 

 mining stock and some realty to which the com- 

 pany held title. The liabilities of Dennis Bros, 

 amount to about $325,000. The Michigan Trust 

 Company was the receiver of the failed concern. 



BIG POWER PROJECT APPROVED. 



The Menominee and iMarinette Light and 

 Traction Company's water power project at 

 Grand Rapids the plant at which is to light 

 and heat and run the machinery of two coun- 

 ties and perhaps other districts was crystal- 

 izcd when at a special meeting of the directors 

 and stockholders it was formally decided to 

 raise the capital stock from $560,000 to $1,- 

 000,000. There was not one dissenting voice 

 at the meeting, neither was there a single di- 

 rector or stockholder opposed to constructing 

 the power plant and expending hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars to harness the rapids and 

 transport the generated power to the twin 

 cities. The final surveys are being completed, 

 and it is expected that the work of the en- 

 gineers will be finished in a week. Then the 

 necessary materials and construction ma- 

 chinery will be purchased, minor contracts foi 

 diffcren't portions of the work let and the real 

 work of building the power house and dam 

 will be started as soon as possible. 



The water rights owned by the company 

 include 1,600 acres of land on either side of 

 the river, extending for a distance of two and 

 one-half miles along the banks. 



Engineer DeGuere, of Grand Rapids, Wis., 

 is now on the grounds with County Surveyor 

 Albert Hass and a crew of men getting the 

 preliminary surveys made. 



In speaking about this improvement, Super- 

 intendent Ed. Daniell of the Traction Com- 

 pany said: With no unforeseen accidents and 

 allowances made for inclement weather, we 

 will have the dam and water-power ready to 

 start by July 1. 1909. We will begin work at 

 once and will have the dam in shape befon 

 snow flies. You may take my word for it thai 



he water power 'vill be developed cheaper 

 per horse power tlnn any water power whicl* 

 's now in the cours^ of deve'onmmt ; n th" 

 country. You can appreciate what this mean? 



hen I tell you trn* ' h rhean r ' 

 " can h "i > ' 



using 1,500 horsepower. This will leave a total 

 of 5,000 horsepower to develop the manufac- 

 turing interests of the cities of Marinette and 

 Menominee. As we will own the property on 

 both sides of the river, we will not have any 

 difficulty from overflow as the only land that 

 will be overflown by the high water will be 

 our own property. 



"The establishment of this improvement will 

 make it possible for all the towns along the 

 line to obtain power for lighting and small 

 manufacturing plants, which are much needed 

 at present." 



STUMPAGE IS LOOKING UP. 



"When lumbermen begin to cast around to 

 find timber in which to make investment, it 

 can safely be calculated that business condi- 

 tions are on the mend," says a Bay City lumber 

 dealer. "Since last fall there has been prac- 

 tically nothing doing in the stumpage line, but 

 very recently things in this line are picking up. 

 Recently Chas. Woods, the widely known log- 

 ging jobber and timber man. and Bert Guilford 

 left West Branch for Mississippi for the pur- 

 pose of looking over a large body of timber 

 land and estimating the stumpage timber. 

 They are doing this for E. B. Foss. of Bay 

 City, and Ammi W. Wright, of Alma. At 

 prices at which timber can be bought for in 

 null there should be good money in buy- 

 ing it and holding it as an investment. It is 

 bound to treble in value in a few years." 





i - ' cheap 



'.! '! -f ts lights 



's no 



NOTES FROM ABROAD. 



by agreement between the Hamburg-Ameri- 

 can Line and the British shipping companies 

 in. the Persian and Arabian trade freights have 

 onct more been restored to a normal level. 



Brazil is borrowing $10,000,000 in Paris for 

 railway purposes at five per cent interest and 

 a face discount of 6J4 per cent. 



The port ot Liverpool, undoubtedly the best 

 planned and best equipped of British ports 

 and upon which there has been an expenditure 

 of $125,000,000, has been carried out on ;\ 

 frontage almost identical with Montreal har- 

 bor, upon which only $10,000,000 has been 

 spent so far. 



Flax spinning mills in Ireland are running 

 only thirty-two instead of fifty-five hours per 

 week. Women spinners are being paid the 

 same wages for thirty-two hours work as for 

 thirty-seven hours. Orders are scarce. 



In France the sale of tobacco is a strict 

 government monopoly, yielding a revenue of 

 about $93,000,000 a year. Import by private 

 firms or individuals is prohibited. About half 

 (34,000,000 pounds) of the leaf tobacco import- 

 ed is from the United States. 



Corea, with a population of 20,000,000, con- 

 sumes 840,000,000 cigarettes yearly, of which 

 Japan supplies 40,000,000 monthly. The bal- 

 ance is made largely of Virginia leaf tobacco 

 at Shanghai and in the United States and Eng- 

 land. 



During the seven years, 1900 to 1907, the 

 volume of Great Britain's imports rose from 

 $2,615,000,000 to $3,000,000,000 and her exports 

 of her own product and manufacture increased 

 from $1,455,000,000 to $2,085,000,000. 



Special Agent Captain Garden says that the 

 Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Paris, 

 France, has acquired all the holdings of the 

 General Electric Company of Schenectady. \. 

 Y., and that a working agreement exists which 

 withdraws the General Electric Company and 

 the Berlin Company, in which it is interested, 

 from competition with the Thomson-Houston 

 Company in French territory, leaving only the 

 Drench Westinghouse Company as an Ameri- 

 can competitor in France. 



Australia has just shipped to San Francisco 



a large cargo of Australia hardwoods, includ- 



na over 800 tons of railroad ties. These 



oods are among the best in the world for 



i : lroad purposes. 



'"rtric power is coming rapidly to the 

 '-int in Chile. This is particularly true of 

 Valparaiso. Santiago is using 491 engines and 

 motors, of which 187 are electric. 



