wood. Prices of timber have gone 

 up with a jump and threaten going 

 up from now on. 



We, the people of Michigan, im- 

 port timber and lumber. Your roof 

 is covered with shingles which come 

 from the Pacific Coast; your finishing 

 timber comes from the South, your 

 moldings from California; the oak 

 in your table is shipped from Missis- 

 sippi and costs you $250 per carload 

 for the freight alone. 



In 1890 the lumber industry in- 

 volved about 125 million dollars and 

 furnished good market for labor and 

 produce to thousands of our farm- 

 ers. To-day over half of this im- 

 mense capital has left the State and 

 is used to make market and labor 

 for other people, leaving dozens of 

 our villages and towns idle and 

 waste. Do we need the forests? Can 

 there be any question? 



But Have We the Land for 

 the Forest? 



In the State of Michigan in the year 

 1900 less than half of all the land 

 was settled by farmers, and more 

 than half was wild, unsettled land. 

 In the same year less than one-third 

 of our land was improved land. The 

 same census tells us that in the north- 

 ern half of the State, not merely the 



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