against forest fires. And just that co-operation of all the 

 people is the only thing that can ever stamp these fires out. 



The sense of safety which the presence of this vigilant 

 force gives to the settlers has brought more permanent resi- 

 dents into the North woods and has done more to advertize 

 the possibilities of the North woods than anything else that 

 the state has ever done. The main purpose is the care of the 

 forests, incidentally it is settling the agricultural areas as 

 nothing else will. 



That is a record for an infant department to be proud of, 

 but the real work of the service is just beginning. It re- 

 mains for them to change the wild, useless forests into active 

 producers. There are millions in those forest areas if they 

 can be gotten out and the state service is prepared to do it 

 if the people will only give them a chance. The state owns 

 more than a million acres of forest land now which are wholly 

 unproductive. We are selling them for a song in order that 

 we may draw a measerly 3% per cent on the song while the 

 land lies still unproductive on somebody else's hands. This 

 would all be changed if these lands were turned over to the 

 state service where they belong. The annual revenue from 

 this land, if it were managed perpetually as forest, would be 

 nearer 50 per cent of their present sale value instead of SV 2 per 

 cent, and the land itself would be producing it. Not only that, 

 but it would be producing wages for thousands of men. Two 

 and a half million dollars less state taxes for the people to 

 pay each year and at least ten million dollars more money for 

 them to pay it with. The service is capable of handling this 

 work and we are not making the proper use of them if we do 

 not give them the chance. 



The State Forests Amendment No. 9, to be voted on next 

 November, will make this change possible. This is well worth 

 investigating. Look up the past work of your forest service, 

 satisfy yourself of what they have already done and you will 

 be satisfied of what you ought to give them to do. 



Yellow poplar, or tulip tree, the largest broadleaf tree in Amer- 

 ica, has been known to reach nearly two hundred feet in height 

 and ten feet in diameter. 



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