12 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



S.'.IHI per year, had authority over the supervi- 

 sors who were thus once more legislated into 

 the lire warden job. The earlier law was re- 

 peated in its main features, but the people 

 were to receive pay for lighting fires and tin- 

 sum total spent in any one town sb uld not 

 exceed $30 in any one year, so that if $49 are 

 .nee spent the people must be sent home be- 

 cause there is no more money available. Of 

 this law the state land commissioner himself 

 in a public meeting declared that it was not 

 worth the paper it was printed on. In 1907 

 the power of the land commissioner was trans- 

 ferred to the state game warden, he was made 

 fire and game warden, the idea being that 

 this office was equipped by law with deputies 

 scattered over the state, that it was more a 

 police body and thus would do better work. 

 But when the writer asked <a deputy game 

 warden, Sept. 11, 1908, if he had any instruc- 

 tions, the reply was in -the negative. Though 

 the whole country was on lire and though 

 every supervisor was by law compelled to 

 fight, it was deemed -unnecessary even to issue 

 instructions. Again: No officer is obliged to 

 do his duty. 



The utter uselessness of these fire warden 

 laws is amply proven by the fires of 1906 and 

 1908 in Michigan, by the tires in Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota and New York. Aside from the 

 small educational value of the posters, it is 

 doubtful if these laws ever prevented a fire, 

 or put one out. The pay provision in these 

 laws is generally conceded to be a mere temp- 

 tation to build enough fire to get the state 

 money. 



The forest still remains without state pro- 

 tection against fire. 



The encouragement laws, or laws for the 

 promotion of forestry in the several states 

 have so far been chiefly along two lines: 



The creation of forest commissions and of 

 late state foresters, to gather and distribute 

 information, make propaganda for forestry 

 and act as advisor to the legislature or gov- 

 ernment of the state. 



The encouragement to plant trees or main- 

 tain forests by offering a bonus, or exemption 

 of the plantations from taxation. These laws 

 have usually been hedged in with -numerous 

 useless conditions and are generally consid- 

 ered unconstitutional. Their value has been 

 educational, perhaps, but otherwise they have 

 been of practically no use. These laws have 

 neither planted nor preserved. 



The state action, creating state forests or 

 parks and providing an organization for their 

 care has been of great and lasting value, and 

 may well be regarded as the only one of the 

 several state efforts which has resulted in 'un- 

 qualified success. Then come -first Xew York, 

 Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Then also the 

 smaller attempts of Minnesota, Michigan, 

 necticut, Massachusetts. Xew Jersey and 

 Indiana, etc, all of which have been of value. 

 These state forests speak for themselves, they 

 are an object lesson and form the nucleus of 

 what some day must be the principal line of 

 state activity with regard to forests. 



Michigan Forestry Association 



HAS FOR ITS OBJECT 



The modification of our laws which will enable the holding and 

 reforesting of forest lands. 



The protection of forest property against fire and trespass. The 

 disposition and management of our state lands. 



Every citizen should be interested in this work and join the Asso- 

 ciation. Membership fee $1.00 per year, including yearly subscription 

 to Michigan Roads and Forests, the official organ of the Association. 



PROF. HUBERT ROTH, Secretary, 



Ann Arbor, Michigan 



of timber lands was to he found, reckoning 

 from those in the state of Washington north- 

 ward thrcugh British Columbia and Alaska. 

 But he limited his statement to North Amer- 

 ica, for he added -that, in his opinion, the larg 

 est forest in the world occupied the valley 

 of the Amazon, embracing much of northern 

 Brazil, eastern Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Col- 

 umbia and Guiana; a region of at least 21 (ID 

 miles in length by 1300 in breadth. 



Exception was immediately taken to this 

 statement by several members who have com- 

 puted the forest area of Central Africa in the 

 valley of the Congo, including the headquart- 

 ers 'of the Nile to the northeast, and those 

 of the Zambesi on the south. According to 

 their estimates, Central Africa contains a for- 

 est region not less than 3000 miles in length 

 from north to south, and of vast, although not 

 fully known width, from east to west. Dis- 

 cussion in which the evidence afforded by 

 travels and surveys was freely cited, seemed 

 favorable to the defender of the Amazonian 

 forest*. 



i^ater in the day the entire question was 

 placed in another light by a member who was 

 able to speak from knowledge of still another 

 great forest region of the globe. This gentle- 

 man gave a vivid picture of the vast, taigas 

 and urmans, the pine, larch and cedar forests 

 of Siberia. 



GREAT FORESTS OF THE WORLD. 



Where is the greatest forest in the world? 

 The question w.i, asked in the forestry sec- 

 tion of the American A ss, ic'iation i<>r (lie Ad- 

 vancement of Science, at an annual meeting 

 in Brooklyn. The importance of forests fur 

 equalizing the climate and the rainfall of the 

 ie was under discussion, and the purpose 

 nf the question uas to show where the great 

 forest tract- of the world arc situated. 



One member, replying off-hand. wa> in 

 clined to maintain that the greatest ci ntinuous 

 tract cf forest lies north of the St. Lawrence 

 river, in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, 

 extending northward to Hudson bay and Lab- 

 region measuring about IT<>0 miles 

 in length from east to west and IIKIII miles 

 in width north ami si nth. 



A professor ttoin the Smithsonian 'Institute 

 rejoim-d that a much larger- continuous area 



FOREST PROPAGATION AND PRESER- 

 VATION. 



The question of the conservation of natural 

 resources was brought prominently before the 

 people of the United States by President 

 Roosevelt, national policies calculated to pn- 

 serve mountain forests and retain, for .the 

 common public benefit, water pi wers. mineral 

 deposists and other natural resorces not yet 

 privately appropriated have been adopted. 

 Much yet remains to be done in the mountain- 

 ous regions of the country in the- reforcstra- 

 tiui of the denuded heights, but public senti- 

 ment has been so thoroughly aroused to the 

 necessity for Mich work on a large 1 scale, es- 

 pecially at the headwaters .if the great rivers, 

 that it will doi;l>tlcss-bc carried out a-, rapidly 



as practicable 



KcforeM ration should not be c nfmed to 

 public work in the mountainous regions of the 

 country. Michigan needs it as much as the 

 mountainous states, and also needs adoption 

 of p licics calculated to encourage private re- 

 1 irestration and forest preservation. St. Clair 

 county has hundreds of acres of sandy land 

 that is of very little value for agricultural pur- 

 i that should be treated as the Germans 

 treat similar land, that is, planted to pine, 

 spruce and lir, and maintained as permanent 



forests, timber to be cut from it when it has 

 reached sufficient growth, posibly half a cen- 

 tury hence, only under intelligent supervision. 

 .Most productive farms would also be greatly 

 improved by intelligent tree planting, as wind 

 breaks, on steep hillslopes. along water 

 courses and on poor soils. 



Possibly it would be expecting too much to 

 assume that the individual owners of large 

 tracts of sandy soil having but little agricul- 

 tural value could be induced to reforest and 

 maintain them for the benefit of future gen- 

 erations. Such work must necessarily be un- 

 dertaken mainly for the common public good. 

 The state should enter upon it, broadly and 

 intelligently, and laws should be enacted that 

 \\-ill authorize counties and townships to un- 

 dertake the growth and preservation of forests 

 within their limits. Many German cities and 

 villages are the owners of adjacent forest 

 lands, from which large revenues are derived, 

 and which tend to modify floods and winds, to 

 prevent wash of soil, and in other way- 

 benelicial to all concerned. 



The Times-Herald especially asks the atten- 

 tion of its farmer readers to this subject, 

 which is of much importance to them. Pine, 

 spruce and fir trees are easily propagated and 

 when set in rows near together, attain suf- 

 ficient growth within a few years to protect 

 the soil and prevent wash, while within fifteen 

 or twenty years cuttings of considerable value 

 can be made from them in the necessary pro* 

 cess of thinning. 



Let Michigan adopt, at an early day. a Ci ntt 

 prehensive policy of forest propagation am' 

 preservation. Port Huron Times-Herald. 



FORESTRY SUMMER SCHOOL. 



A forestry summer school on the shore 

 Iliggins' lake in Roscommon county, was ma, I. 

 a possibility for the Michigan AgricultttfJ 

 College department of forestry at a receti 

 meeting of the -late board of agriculture. 



The summer term will be of six wee 

 duration from lime :js. The location is a 

 ('..Id Springs, on the shores of lliggins' lake 

 where the Michigan public domain coininis 

 sion has placed :,s.(i()(l acres of the varioiisl; 

 timbered stale forest reserve at the di-i 

 of the college. The region is high rolling 

 sand plains, typical of north central Michigan 

 and presents "the state's problem of cut 

 lands. The students will live' in tents nca 

 ihe -bores of the lake. 



Prof. L. Fred Baker, head of the forestry 

 department, expects that about :!() students will 

 take tin' work this year. Instructor F. A. Gay 

 f r.l. Yale. '(IT. lias been added to the forestr 

 staff :rt M. A. C.. will aid in the instruction 

 work in the- north. 



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