HERMAN H. CHAPMAN 77 



spending small annual appropriations of from $3,000 to 

 $10,000 in purchasing lands for state forest reserves. 



But states do not always establish reserves solely in 

 mountainous land. Wisconsin has no mountains, yet she 

 set aside all of her public lands in the northern third of 

 the state as forest reserves, totalling over 260,000 acres. 

 Michigan has made a beginning with 37,000 acres in the 

 midst of a flat, sandy plain. These reserves must be justi- 

 fied by something more than the effect of forests on the 

 runoff or erosion. 



Agricultural Soils versus Forest Soils. 



There are two arguments to favor these reserves, neith- 

 er of which is as yet accepted by the public as a whole. The 

 first is that land may be too poor for agriculture and should 

 therefore not be farmed, but devoted to forests, for which 

 it is entirely suited. The second is that the state can go 

 into the business of producing timber and succeed better 

 than the individual, yet without injury to the interests of 

 those individuals who wish to raise timber. As to the first 

 proposition, could the truth be clearly set forth it would 

 convince the most skeptical. Sandy land without a clay or 

 compact subsoil will not retain either moisture or fertility. 

 They are easily tilled but soon exhausted and even clover 

 fails to maintain their fertility. Except when located in 

 the near vicinity of large markets where truck crops can 

 be grown, and the land heavily fertilized artificially, it is 

 not possible to earn a good living on such lands. Areas of 

 this character exist in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minne- 

 sota, and in each state, it is found that such farms are usu- 

 ally abandoned after a more or less protracted struggle 

 with adverse conditions. Were this the final result, the 

 question would be solved. But land speculators are able 

 to obtain such lands very cheap, and by means of flaring 

 advertisements, which may be read every day in the press, 

 they attract from the city inexperienced victims who pay 



