70 RURAL MICfllGAN 



equipage. Prostrate it served as fences, while its 

 succulent twigs saved hungry live-stock from winter 

 starvation. Erect it warded off the blasts of winter, 

 and it bestowed upon the surface of the land its 

 covering of humus which, of itself and through the 

 organic life it housed, fertilized the soil and rendered 

 sterile sands agriculturally productive^ retained soil- 

 moisture and retarded the run-off of rain and snow, 

 withheld erosion while preserving an even flow of 

 spring and stream. It sheltered bird and animal life 

 useful to man. It furnished primitive road material 

 in a land of swamps and marshes. It dripped de- 

 licious sweets and exuded essential gums and pitch. 

 It hived the bee whose honey made a substitute for 

 sugar. By the distribution of the moss carried on 

 its trunks, it became a primitive compass to guide 

 the wilderness wanderer, while out of its depths 

 weird music sighed or wailed in breeze or gale. At 

 the last its ashes evoked the soil into increased pro- 

 ductivity and contributed a primitive saleratus and 

 lye to the requirements of housewifery. Yet the 

 ubiquitous forest must go, if the more valuable con- 

 tri!)utions of tillage were to l)e gathered in. And 

 it did steadily disappear, and continues to withdraw, 

 it is estimated, at a rate which uncovers 100,000 

 acres of virgin soil each year. 



Nevertheless, the forest in Michigan is still far 

 from extinct. An estimate of the United States 

 Forest Service (1919) put the standing timber in 

 Michigan .at 53,000,000,000 feet B. M., which ex- 

 perienced lumbermen regard as a conservative state- 



