MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



lands abandoned after having been stripped 

 cf their forests should be reforested. The 

 unwisdom of the past has left to the present 

 a lesson and a legacy. Lands that the farm- 

 ers do not rightly own and utilize have been 

 turned over to the jobber and the speculator 

 for denudation and abandonment. Now the 

 duty of the state to remedy the evils of the 

 past, so far as possible, is apparent. 



Unfortunately we have always recognized 



the right of the individual to do whatsoever 



he pleased with his own even to the extent 



of rendering unproductive arid uninhabitable 



and he did not create. 



The land surface of the earth is a deter- 

 minate quantity. It is computable in square 

 miles, sections and acres. Man cannot add to 

 it. He can improve or injure it, render it 

 more or less productive. Already he has made 

 seme of the originally fairest portions sterile 

 and uninhabitable. Now the best that can 

 be done is to save this western continent from 

 a similar fate. Forestry is one of the means. 

 The lessons of experience and of history are 

 valuable. We must save and restore the 

 forests. 



Under our 'institutions this is largely an 

 individual matter. The state can do much. 

 Michigan has a fine opportunity. The nation 

 can do more. The right to dismember the 

 country with swords is denied; the right to 

 destroy it with axes has been regarded as 

 inalienable. None the less, the government 

 ought, for the general welfare, to spend more 

 for forests and less for war more for preser- 

 vation and less for destruction. 



The theme is a fruitful one. It touches the 

 welfare of the people, even in the near future, 

 more closely and intimately than any of us 

 have yet conceived. 



An American poet said: "The groves were 

 God's first temples." The Hebrew Psalmist 

 declared: "The trees of the Lord are full of 

 sap, the cedars of Lebanon which he hath 

 planted." 



Mr. President and members of the Michi- 

 gan Forestry Association, whose labor in be- 

 half of the welfare of our state and its people 

 is born of love and duty, untainted with selfish- 

 ness and greed, permit me, in conclusion, to 

 add a still warmer word of welcome than the 

 first one spoken, and to express the hope that 

 a broader and wiser forestry policy may be 

 pursued in the future than has been a possible 

 result of the almost thankless efforts of the 

 past. 



VERMONT BUYS STATE FOREST. 



THE NEXT STEP OF 



PROGRESS IN FORESTRY 



The state board of agriculture and forestry 

 of Vermont has just completed the purchase 

 of Vermont's first state forest. It is in Plain- 

 field. The plot consists of 450 acres, partly 

 covered with second growth spruce and some 

 old growth hardwoods. A central location 

 has been selected in order to better demon- 

 strate methods of forestry. 



Later similar tracts will be bought in other 

 parts of the state. The newly purchased tract 

 is particularly well adapted for the use of 

 State Forester Hawes because it offers a vari- 

 ety of problems in culture and conservation. 

 The open lands will be planted in seedlings 

 at once and the second growth thinned out 

 properly. A lot of nursery stock from the 

 experiment station at Burlington will be set 

 out in the spring. 



FAMOUS TREE DESTROYED. 



Many will be interested to learn that the 

 tree pleaded for in the pcet Campbell's 

 "Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree," 

 was blown over in a gale a few nights ago. 

 It stood near the front of the mansion of Mr. 

 McCulloch, Ardwall House, Kirkcudbright. 

 J. Nisbet, who sends the news to a contempo- 

 rary, says it is quite hopeless to think of be- 

 ing able to prop it up again and give it a 

 new lease of life. He suggests that whatever 

 seed can still be collected from it shr.uld be 

 gathered now and sown next spring, so that 

 a new generation may be raised from the old 

 tree round which so many associations linger. 



Hon. Chase S. Osborn, Regent of the Univer- 

 sity of Michigan. 



The next step in forestry should be to trans- 

 fer the problem from fields of sentiment and 

 theory to the practical. In a broad sense the 

 public mind has been interested up to -the 

 present time by the artistic phase of forestry, 

 and, although the general government and 

 some states have wisely set aside forest reser- 

 vations, the people as a whole are not familiar 

 with the practical side of the movement. If 

 we can preserve existing forests, or replace 

 them as fast as destroyed, the problem will 

 have been solved. The economical side of 

 the American mind is so acutely and abnor- 

 mally developed that this can only be done 

 by proving that forest preservation pays. To 

 this end, those splendid pioneers in the general 

 conservation movement and all recruits may 

 address themselves with much hope. Simple 

 economical facts may be emphasized through 

 forestry publications and the press in general. 

 Already our forestry schools are teaching for- 

 estry economy with good effect, but the 

 lessons must reach a wider public. Profitable 

 forestry cannot be accomplished fully under 

 present conditions. Laws should be passed 

 that would stimulate and encourage the con- 

 servation of existing forests, which, once done, 

 would minify the importance and uncertainty 

 of immediate renewal work. It is reported 

 from Biltmore, in North Carolina, that the 

 Vanderbilt forest estate of 130,000 acres annu- 

 ally produces four million feet of lumber, 

 5,000 cords of wood for fuel and by-products, 

 1,000 cords of tan bark and several hundred 

 cords of pulpwood, all the yield of mature 

 or defective trees, the cutting of which im- 

 proves the forest and really increases its value. 

 We cannot have farms and forests, too, in 

 the same place, and if a choice has to be made 

 it will generally be in favor of the farm. For- 

 est preservation will be most successful where 

 there is the least competition with agricultural 

 possibility, and will be most satisfactory where 

 there is no competition, as in rocky and moun- 

 tainous districts. In Michigan we shall have 

 forests for the longest time in such regions 

 as those of the Porcupine and Huron moun- 

 tains in the upper peninsula. In the lower 

 peninsula we shall eventually have to be con- 

 tent with such forests as may be preserved 

 only because it pays to keep them up from a 

 direct money standpoint. 



Perhaps we too often think of forests and 

 forestry in connection with big, wild, woody 

 tracts. The thought should be, in my opinion, 

 more of tree conservation, and a tree may be 

 regarded as valuable, both for lumber and 

 fruit. A fruit tree is as valuable as a lumber 

 tree for its physical influence upon the climate 

 and rainfall. .If we can have a wide distribu- 

 tion, over Michigan and the entire country, 

 of any kind of trees, we shall have accom- 

 plished the general object of the forest con- 

 servation movement. How can this be brought 

 about? That is the question. It is not im- 

 possible to look forward to a time in this 

 country when we shall need every acre that 

 can be tilled in order to sustain our population, 

 as is the case in China today. China has lived 

 at least seventy centuries. When Marco Polo 

 wrote of that country the trees were gone 

 and had been spent probably for a long period. 

 Bamboo had taken their place. We cannot 



have a wide distribution of bamboo in this 

 country, and nothing can take the place of 

 trees here but more trees. So we shall have 

 to encourage and teach tree culture to all the 

 people. We shall not have great solid forests, 

 but we may have groves and orchards and nut- 

 bearing trees and wood lots and tree-lined 

 roads all over Michigan and the entire 

 country. In order to do this we must help 

 and even require all of our farmers to have 

 wood lots, to grow trees along fence lines, 

 and there should be at least a double line of 

 trees along every public road in Michigan. 

 Tree surgery, the necessity for removing 

 cymes and adventitious buds, the importance 

 of pruning and of spraying, and everything 

 relating to arboreal culture should be taught. 

 As it is now, trees are pruned with no common 

 regard for the best methods; leaders are ruth- 

 lessly butchered and amputations are made 

 with no reference to the shoulder of the limb. 

 In the few places where tree surgery is prac- 

 ticed the painting of exposed parts is care- 

 lessly done, and the filling with cement or 

 plastic slate is so poorly executed that rain 

 water penetrates and more harm than good 

 results. Not long ago I walked through a 

 small forest maintained in connection with a 

 leading school of forestry. The general con- 

 dition of the trees was bad enough to make 

 a tree-dweller blush and to convince anyone 

 that the school in question was long in theory 

 and in books and on paper, but very short in 

 practical methods. 



There should be a general law prohibiting 

 the cutting of a tree under six inches, and 

 our regulations should reduce the fire risk 

 to a minimum. Large forests are difficult to 

 handle under most favorable conditions. There 

 seems to be a multiplication of tree pests and 

 a widespread reduction of tree vitality and 

 resistance. Within a decade nearly every 

 tamarack in America has succumbed to a pest 

 and now a general attack is being made by 

 pests upon the white pine, the white birch 

 and the alder. This menace is not confined 

 to trees surrounded by modern encroachments. 

 I traveled on foot this year through over a 

 hundred miles of forest along the Height of 

 Land in Canada, in a region where no lumber- 

 ing has been done and no mining; where man 

 has not yet trespassed; and I was shocked 

 and grieved to see the effect of predatory 

 pests upon forest trees there, and especially 

 upon the pines, birches and alders. Are they 

 going the way of the tamarack? 



Trees more evenly distributed, where me 

 are personally interested in their welfare an 

 where they may be reached and cared fo 

 may be preserved against all the enemies 

 the arboreal world, the chiefs of which ar 

 insects and fire. Why not give that farme 

 who raises trees a reduction of his taxes 

 We bonus manufacturing by protective tariffs 

 and direct gifts and relief from public charges 

 It would seem to be even wiser to encourag 

 the tree grower in like manner. 



The present work should be to teach ever 

 human being to love trees, to make them fe 

 as nearly as possible that a tree cries out 

 dying agony every time it is assaulted nee 

 lessly; that trees are man's best friends; tr 

 their care is necessary and profitable; th 

 the plain individual is even more intereste 

 than the forest magnate; that it is as seric 

 to lose a tree as it is a pig or a calf or 

 sheep, and so on. Enlist the farmers and all 

 the common people. Make them to believe 

 the truth, which is that it is their fight and 

 not the rich man's; that they are to be bene- 

 fited most. What becomes the fight of the 

 many must win. Up to the present forest 

 conservation call it tree preservation has 

 only appealed to the few. The way to interest 

 all is through channels of practical educatic 

 and application and economical encourag 

 ment. 



Trees are so scarce in China that they 

 sacred. Let us have them sacred here befc 

 they are gone. 



The Reed City high school has added an 

 elementary course in forestry. 



