58 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



from fire, will then be cut from year to year, but it will 

 not be as good as the original growth and there will not 

 be enough of it for home consumption. Lumber will be 

 dearer and our great lumber industry will decline. There 

 are, however, fully three million acres of waste land in 

 scattered localities which if planted with pine would in 

 time become normal forests, yielding forever a supply 

 sufficient for our home need. Such forests would by 

 their growth perpetually yield a net annual revenue on 

 the capital invested of three per cent, compound interest, 

 besides many indirect benefits. On such waste, sandy 

 land it will take on an average about eighty years for a 

 crop of pine trees to grow to merchantable size. Indi- 

 viduals cannot wait so long for a crop and they will not 

 engage in the business. The state, to whom time does 

 not occur, must undertake the work by purchasing waste 

 land and planting it with pine. The Minnesota forestry 

 board is ready to go to work, but, until there is some man 

 in the legislature who will make forestry a specialty and 

 fight for it with energy, we shall not get the necessary 

 money for forestry. 



RANK WHICH FORESTRY SCIENCE CAN GIVE OUR COUNTRY. 



When thirty years ago the United States sent her naval 

 vessels over distant seas to observe the transit of Venus, 

 Europe gave her the highest praise for such sacrifice for 

 science. Wherever Americans have profited by science 

 they rank with any other people. To keep our army and 

 navy up to date we have maintained scientific military 

 and naval academies for a long period. Homage is paid 

 to our ships of war abroad because our naval service has 

 had every benefit that science could furnish. So, when 

 our forests shall have had scientific care for a sufficient 

 time we shall rank with the most advanced countries in 

 forestry. "A nation's character," said Henry Clay, "is 



