MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



13 



CONSERVATION. 



By C. S. Harrison, President of the Nebraska 

 Park and Forestry Association. 



An address delivered at the summer meeting 



of the Nebraska Horticultural Society. 

 When the Creator turned this great land 

 o\er to us it was .a region of surpassing beau- 

 ty. For long millenniums He was at work, 

 employing the highest art and skill for its 

 adornment. The whole country was land- 

 scaped on a most magnificent scale and with 

 'a far-reaching forethought for the future. 

 Everything was provided for. It was the 

 patient work of ages to spread a thin layer 

 oi soil over the rocks and on the hills and 

 mountain sides, and then fasten it there with 

 trees, shrubs, and grasses. Mighty rivers 

 flowed to the sea, fed by thousands of streams 

 which sang merrily on their way. These 

 mis were carefully protected. Forests, 

 luishes. and rank vegetation prevented the 

 -hing of the soil, while at the sources of 

 e rivulets there was the most careful 

 :ming to retain the waters. Dead leaves, 

 .lying trees, mosses and the accumulated 

 ill])' >its of the ages a'l were like vast sponges 

 retain the waters so that the streams would 

 e an even flow. Mighty forests were 

 ted. They grew and decayed. And so, 

 :he centuries passed, the land grew richer 

 d richer. 



How artistically all was arranged! There 



ten delightful parks in the forests, and 



when the woods edged upon the prairies there 



were tall trees in the background, shrubs to 



the front, then the flower-sprinkled carpet of 



en. 



Go into the forests, the great temples of 



I What massive columns upheld the dark 



ureen canopy. Look where you would, in 



.'Hand, plain, and mountain, the ages of 



' the past had made preparations for the ages 



me. 



Then came the two brothers, Graft and 



vith no thought or care for the future, 



ith no appreciation whatever of the plans of 



Creator. And a careless government, 



; i-h today, from its own natural resources, 



Id have had income enough for current 



ii uses, allowed billions to be taken and 



ed. One of the most beautiful sights 



i earth is a splendid forest. One of the 



spectacles is to see that same forest 



prey of the destructive ax and fire black- 



ned stumps, like the gravestones of departed 



udeur. If the lumberman had planned for 



iiio-t .-peedy and utter ruin, he could not 



; p d a more complete system. He 



took on'y half of the tree and left the rest to 



r\ for the great tinder box. The fires came. 



iliat dead rubbish was ready for them. 



MiiK was the dead brush burned, but the 



'.ng deposit of dead leaves, rotten logs, 



rich mould needed to feed the soil for 



ing eons; all were destroyed; and a 



en of Eden became a blackened wilder- 



ess. ll< w the ruin has spread! Within the 



tiory of man the mighty forests of Indiana 



Ohio were chopped down and burned. If 



ill today, they would be worth more than 



11 the crops grown there since their destruc- 



Take Arizona, for instance. The for- 



i; -ts have been cut from the mountains. The 



il'biih invites the fires, and the fires never 



:i-= an invitation. Great flocks and herds of 



beep and cattle were driven in, and they 



lave destroyed the herbage which fastened 



e thin layer of earth to the rocks. The 



>!s came and ripped the earth from the 



1 fountain sides and whirled avalanches of mud 



jito the fertile valleys, often plowing out 



real Bullies twenty and thirty feet deep 



'rough the rich soil, and all hurried on to 



11 the river beds. Now, when the floods 



line, there is nothing to detain them, and 



ie people of Texas must suffer from the 



uidalism of Arizona. 



There are no richer lands on earth than the 

 reat prairies of the west, and here in God's 

 phest garden there have been two sources of 



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 



i 



disaster. The first is cropping lands without 

 remuneration; raising wheat year after year 

 with no manure, till some of the richest farms 

 of Minnesota are now so reduced they will 

 hardly raise chicken feed. This system of 

 waste applies to rich, level lands. There is a 

 double system applied to hillside lands rob- 

 bing the soil and allowing it to wash. I have 

 known the richest soil to be swept away by 

 a single heavy rain, so the whole furrow would 

 be gone, and you could see the plow marks. 

 Stand by any of our streams after a heavy 

 rain and you will see the very cream of our 

 fie'ds going to the Gulf of Mexico. 



It is waste, waste, everywhere. Most feed- 

 ers will have their feed lots perched on some 

 steep hillside, if they can find such a place, 

 so that the richest fertilizer the world pro- 

 duces can be utterly swept away without any 

 trouble on their part, and they keep on grow- 

 ing twenty-five bushels of corn to the acre, 

 when, by saving the manure and plowing their 

 land deep, they might have 010 bushels. 



Our coal lands with their marvelous de- 

 posits, have been well-nigh given away. I 

 have seen veins of coal eleven feet deep which 

 the wise United States government sold for 

 $10 per acre. Streams with waterfalls that 

 were gold mines have been parted with for 

 a song. 



Go into Colorado, and vandalism is there. 

 The mountains are robbed of their beauty. 

 The upland pastures are over-grazed, and you 

 have desolation instead of beauty. A pioneer 

 in the Rockies once said to me: "I think we 

 early settlers should have great credit for 

 coming in here and starting things." I re 

 plied: "If you never had seen this country, 

 and had left it today as God made it, it would 

 be worth five times as much as it is now." 



Our railroads are great civilizers, but the 

 fires set by the engines leave a track of bar- 

 barism behind them. See how it is in Wash- 

 ington and Oregon. The lumber barons who 

 have wrought such ruin at the north are now 

 at work among the grandest forests ever 

 grown. They seem to concentrate all their 

 energies there to complete the work of ruin. 

 In some instances, every device is resorted to 

 to get possession of lands which belong to the 

 people. Take the Appalachian Mountains. 

 The forests are being cut down; the beautiful 

 rivers are filled with' rubbish ; sand and stones 

 are carried onto fertile valley farms. In a 

 short time, eighteen million dollars of damage 

 has ' een inflicted, and yet Congress looks on 

 in indifference while the horror grows. 



When you come to the farm, you see also 

 a terrific waste there. In the east the soil is 

 washed away and the rocks and stones are 

 left; no thought or care is taken to save the 

 soil. Many beautiful regions where heavy 



crops were grown are now deserted, and you 

 can buy farms for half what the buildings 

 would cost. 



What wonder, in the midst of all this ruin, 

 that a "Great Heart" should arise? He looks 

 on the past, and then on the present, and 

 then into the future, and he asks himself 

 what will become of this nation 200 years 

 from now. In the ordering of Providence, 

 when a tremendous crisis comes there is al- 

 ways a man to meet it. This time it was 

 Gifford Pinchot, by education one of the best 

 'foresters the world has produced. A man of 

 means, he is net hampered in his work. He is 

 ready to sacrifice thousands for the future. 

 He might have made judicious investments in 

 the great west he knew so well, so he could 

 have become a billionaire. He might have 

 taken his chances in an unguarded moment 

 and captured forests, water powers, and coal 

 lands. No man since the days of Robert 

 M< rris, who furnished the sinews of war for 

 Washington and then died in a debtors' prison, 

 has done more or made greater sacrifices than 

 Mr. Pinchot. Though for the present he has 

 lost his position, he is yet a king, independent 

 of throne or crown. Few men have shown 

 such a fearless persistence in the face of the 

 most determined opposition. There were 

 thousands of men who had pet plans for the 

 future. They wished to put their hands on 

 the nation's wealth. Little cared they for the 

 future. Catt'e men and sheep men, who for 

 years had been alb-wed to ruin young forests 

 and destroy pastures by over-grazing, rose 

 in arms. And what a clamor they raised! 



There were no ways of fighting fires. The 

 cattle men wanted fires. Some of the cowbovs 

 had it worked down to a fine art. Here was a 

 tract thev wanted burned. They might be 

 caught. One takes a magnifying glass and sets 

 it so the focused rays next day would light 

 on dry leaves and other combustibles. The 

 sun does its work, and the innocent cowbov 

 proves an alibi, for he is fifty miles away. I 

 met a range rider in the Rockies and had n 

 long talk with him. He would say to stock 

 owners: "You can put only so many head on 

 this range, and you must pay for it." "Xot 

 much." was the answer. "We have had this 

 range, and we are going to have it." He would 

 tell them: "I represent the United States gov- 

 ernment. Yon cannot afford to have a war 

 with 90. (100.00(1 people." Often his life was 

 threatened. All manner of trumped-up charges 

 were sent on to Washington, and sometimes 

 he had to face fire both front and rear. But 

 those heroic men. like the mounted police of 

 Canada, have convinced the ranchmen thoro K 

 a law in the land, and it must be obeyed. 



In a terrible time like this, when most of 

 our northwestern forests are tinder-boxes, 



