MICHIGAN RCADS AND FORESTS 



FARMERS MORE CAREFUL. 



The absence of forest fires in the. copper 

 country this .summer has given vise to consid- 

 erable speculation and comment. Last yea: .. 

 this time the entire copper country, in com- 

 mon with the state at large, was forest fire 

 swept, and hundreds of thousands of dollar-, 

 worth of damage resulted. So far this sum- 

 mer there has not been a -ingle big t'uresi fire 

 reported. 



There are many who believe the h .mestcad- 

 cr.s and farmers have profited by their terrible 

 experience of hist se.mmer, and that extreme 

 care and caution was used this summer in 

 clearing away underbrush and stumpagc. Or- 

 dinarily fires were .-tarted at frei|ueiu inter 

 vals. with the result the flame- spread quickly 

 until they were bey. nd ccr.irol. 



The pall of -moke wliich overhung the ui- 

 tire copper country for many weeks last Au- 

 gust is well remembered and residents are 

 congratulating themseKi-- up n their good 

 fortune this year. Careful inquiry has failed 

 to elicit any information as to a single Foresl 

 fire in the district and the farmers ami others 

 are hoping the record will be maintained 

 throughout the remainder of the year. 



Last summer millions of feet of staneln'" 

 timber were elestroyed by the (lames and some 

 very big losses were reported. In many in- 

 stance'.- human life wa- in danger, farmers and 

 homesteaders being driven from 'he : r home's 

 by the rushing (lames. All efforts to fight the 

 flames were futile and it was not until heavy 

 rains set in that the danger was eliminated. 



LOSS THROUGH FOREST FIRES. 



\\ith timber growing more scarce and more 

 valuable (here- should be' a special effort made 

 to prevent a repetition of last year's record in 

 forest fires. An effective policy may entail the 

 maintenance of a larger force by the provinces 

 and also by the Dominion where valuable tim- 

 ber is under federal authority. According to' 

 a report by the forestry branch of the interior 

 department, there were s:;."> forest fires of seri- 

 <iu- proportions in the dominion during nios. 

 British Columbia was the chief sufferer, the 

 total loss through the '2'.'>~> fires iu that province 

 being $25,000,000. This was the value of the 

 -10. (100.0(1(1 feel of timber and of the mills, im- 

 provements, and other property destroyed. 

 The loss in that province was about !)() per 

 cent of the' entire loss in the Dominion. This 

 unusually large aggregate was due to exten- 

 sive tires in the Crow's Xe-st Pass couiitrv and 

 on Vancouver Island. 



Quebec suffered from 250 fires, hut the 

 gale' damage was small compared wilh 

 that in the Pacific Province. The teital area 

 burned over in the Dominion was ISx.noo 

 acres. The record is more dee'ply impressed 

 by the loss of twenty-one lives. With the 

 advance of settlement and the growth of a 

 more adventurous .-pirit among campers, hunt- 

 ers and explorers the' elangrr of forest lire's 

 continually increases. Wood-ranging; forces 

 sufficient a le-w ye'ar- ago are inadequate to 

 the heavier duties devolving" ejn them. To 

 insure against any of the seemingly inevitable 

 fires getting beyoiid control it is ncce- 

 that men be in readiness for the concentration 

 of efforts wherever a danger may deve-lop. 

 This is one of many phases of the forest 

 preservation problem, and the records show 

 that it has ne>t received the measure- of atten- 

 tion its importance demands. 



Fire Cherry in Mixed Hardwood Regeneration Attacked by Its Worst 

 Enemy, "Black Knot." 



TIMBER GROWTH AND WASTE. 



The forestry service of the United States 

 has just given out .some statistics that an 

 unusual interest to Michigan, for they confirm 

 the- general statements hitherto wielely circu- 

 lated that our timber resource- are being rap- 



idly diminished and at the present rate will 

 soon be exhausted. The yearly growth of the 

 Its, we are told, is less than 84,000,000.000 

 feet, board measure, while we are actually 

 cutting" for Use. apart from the large losses 

 from fires, storms and insects, about 240,000.- 

 ooo.ooo feet, or nearly three times as much. 

 The largest .re'scrvoir in the world must in 

 time be cmptkel if it gives out three times as 

 much as it receives. 



There is reason f..r believing that this enor- 

 mous expenditure of our timber resources is 

 largely due to wa.-teful practices, comments 

 the Xew York Tribune. We "use" each year 

 no less than :i,000 feet board measure, for 

 every man, woman and child in the country, 

 while Germany uses only 444 feet ami 1'rance 

 :;oo feet. X'ow it may be that we legiti- 

 mately need and ought to use meire than those 

 countries, but we niu-,t doubt if the' difference 

 ought to be as great as it is. It can scarcely 

 be defensible for us to make way with ten 

 times as much lumber as France' and nearly 

 seven times as much as Germany. 



We might use a geioel eleal more than Ger- 

 many and yet not deplete our forests if only 

 proper methods of cutting and of forest cul- 

 ture were observed. The state fe>rests of Ger- 

 many, which are a .source of profit to that 

 empire, produce yearly an average new growth 

 01 ",(> board feet to the acre, while in the 

 I'nited State- such growth is not more than 

 111 le'e't. or only one-fourth as much. Yet our 

 -oil is richer than that of Germany and we 

 have ju.-t as fast growing tree.-. The differ- 

 ed :e in her favor arises from the fact that her 

 forests are cultivated far more intelligently 

 and scientifically than e:mrs. Here a forest is 

 commonly regarded as a piece of woodland 

 which is to be cut off auel destroyed, while 

 there it is a permanent plantation of trees 

 which i,s te> be cultivated and mainta-.iied in 



constant productiveness. It ought not to take 

 this country many more years to learn that 

 better way. 



GERMANY, FORESTRY MODEL. 



Forest experts of all nationalities agree that 

 Germany is in an enviable position as regards 

 her lumber supply. No nation in the world 

 makes more thorough utilization of its forest 

 resources. 



The German empire has approximately 

 35,00,000 acres of forest, of which 31.9 per cent 

 belongs to the state. Many years ago that 

 country awakened to the necessity of applying 

 the same methods of business economy to the 

 management of its forest lands that are applied 

 to its operations in trade, and the result is 

 that Germany's practice of forestry has served 

 as a model for all other countries. 



German forestry is remarkable in three ways 

 it has always led in scientific thoroughness 

 and now it is working out results with an ex- 

 actness almost equal to that of the laboratory; 

 it has applied this scientific kowledge with the 

 greatest technical success; and it has solved 

 the problem of securing through a long series 

 of years an increasing forest output and in- 

 creasing profits at the same time. 



Starting with forests which were in as bad 

 shape as many of our own cut-over areas, 

 Germany raised the average yield of wood per 

 acre from twenty cubic feet in 1830 to seventy- 

 five cubic feet in 1908. During the same period 

 it trebled the proportion of saw timber secured 

 from the average cut, which means, in other 

 words, that through the practice of forestry 

 th^e timber lands of Germany arc of three times 

 better quality today than when no system was 

 used. In a little over half a century it in- 

 creased the money returns from an average 

 acre of forest sevenfold, and toelay the forests 

 are in better conelition than ever before. 



