34 REPORT OF SPECIAL FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



REPORT AND FINDINGS OF COMMITTEE 



Two questions upon which the Committee were to 

 report to the 1915 session of the Legislature are pre- 

 sented in the law creating it: First, what areas of 

 land now held as forest reserve and those parts pro- 

 posed to be included within such reserve within the 

 counties of Forest, Iron, Oneida, Price and Vilas 

 are better adapted to agricultural than to forestry 

 purposes. Second, whether the best interests of all 

 persons concerned, especially the taxpayers of the 

 State, will not be better promoted by devoting State 

 lands to other than reforestation purposes. 



Having this in view the Committee have deemed 

 it one of their duties to make a general study of the 

 subject of forestry and to submit their views upon 

 this subject. To many this will seem strange when 

 all of the leading countries of the world and nearly 

 all of the older states of the Union in fact, all of 

 those in the northeastern part of our country have 

 been for many years and are now engaged in the re- 

 forestation of those lands located within their bor- 

 ders which are not suited to agriculture. We cannot 

 believe it necessary that the people of Wisconsin be 

 shown that the general policy or idea of forestry is 

 sound and a success commercially. 



Mr. Simon B. Elliott, member of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Forestry Reservation Commission, and author 

 of "The Important Timber Trees of the United 

 States," in the latter work, says: "All will agree that 

 lands suitable for agriculture should be reserved for 

 that purpose; but it is equally true that land not so 

 suited, and which has borne a crop of trees, can and 

 should once more be devoted to that use; and there 

 is a large area of that kind of land in this country." 



He also added in an interview: 



"It is not good policy to permit attempts to be 

 made to induce settlers, with a view to home-mak- 

 ing, to go on lands not suited to agriculture. Aside 

 from the moral feature involved there inevitably 



