40 REPORT OF SPECIAL FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



work and many thousands of acres of our cut-over 

 lands, unprofitable for agriculture, will be devoted 

 to the growth of pine. Nothing will so stimulate 

 and encourage this interprise as the example the 

 State Forestry Board expects to set forth in plant- 

 ing State lands. In the last few years a number 

 of private owners have expressed a desire to reforest 

 their lands large holders who have waited until 

 the soil survey of their district was completed, so 

 they would know upon expert advice which lands 

 were non-agricultural. 



In a way, the task given this Committee to de- 

 cide which of these lands are best adapted to agri- 

 cultural use is an impossible one. The only way 

 this can be determined in detail is by a soil survey 

 and a thorough cruising of these lands, forty by 

 forty, by competent judges of farm lands. This 

 would demand many months of hard labor and could 

 not be undertaken by the members of this Com- 

 mittee. All we could do was to visit as much of 

 the territory as possible, getting a general idea as 

 to whether any of the lands were unfit for farming 

 and whether the agricultural development of Wis- 

 consin might be hindered by the taking of some of 

 these lands from the market and by their use for 

 reforestation purposes. 



The question as to just what lands are available 

 for reforestation is a debatable one. It is hard in 

 this day and age to specify what are agricultural 

 and what are non-agricultural lands. In the wild 

 unsettled areas of Northern Wisconsin one is liable 

 to be greatly deceived, and while at this time he 

 might say that some of the lands were non-agri- 

 cultural, or might better say not profitable from an 

 agricultural standpoint, a few years may work a 

 mighty change a wonderful change and the demand 

 be such that practically all of these lands would 

 be required for agricultural purposes. 



Nevertheless, the lesson as learned in some of 

 our sister States of the East may be a guide to us 

 in this. In the Blue Mountains of Potter County, 



