it is equally necessary that there should be land for the 

 growing of trees. Minnesota has great areas of land which 

 are undoubtedly better adapted for the growth of forest than 

 of anything else. It is a mistake to assume that all land is 

 suitable for agriculture. It is a crime to send poor, deluded 

 settlers to take up lands which are suitable only for the rais- 

 ing of trees. The hundreds of abandoned farms in certain 

 sections of the Northern states speak eloquently of the fear- 

 ful struggle that has been made by the former settlers to 

 wrest a living from the unwilling soil. No punishment is too 

 severe for the land sharks who hold out alluring inducements 

 to poor and land-hungry foreigners that they can make them- 

 selves happy and prosperous upon lands which are more suit- 

 able for softwood timber than valuable farm crops. Minne- 

 sota has millions of acres of the finest soil in the world, which 

 will sustan an agricultural population a hundred times greater 

 than the present population in comfort, peace and plenty. 



There are in the northern section of the state thousands of 

 acres which are better adapted for cultivation than for tree 

 growth, but it is a very short-sighted policy to overlook the 

 fact that there is much land in the coniferous belt which is 

 not fit for the tiller of the soil. 



The time will surely come when the people of Minnesota 

 will be very glad that certain areas of the state are better, or 

 even as well adapted to the raising of trees as to other crops. 

 This is not true of all other states. 



In addition to making land, which would otherwise be 

 waste, produce wealth for all the people, the products from 

 the state timber will in time very decidedly affect prices 

 which the people must pay for lumber. If within twenty to 

 forty years the people of Minnesota are obliged to purchase 

 the greater part of their lumber from the Western and Pa- 

 cific coast states, the price of lumber delivered here will be 

 very much higher than lumber manufactured in the state. 

 The freight alone on the average thousand feet of lumber 

 shipped from the Pacific coast to St. Paul is $12.00. 



It must be understood that citizens now engaged in the 

 lumbering business cannot conduct their operations in such 

 a way as to perpetuate the forest. * * * The business of 



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