Opportunities and Facilities 



the Saginaw Forest Farm, a tract of land about one mile west of the 

 city of Ann Arbor, presented to the University by Hon. Arthur Hill of 

 Saginaw. The farm comprises eighty acres, and is a typical example 

 of the low hilly land of the drift district-, and contains as great a 

 variety of topographical and soil conditions as could be expected in an 

 area of this extent. Its soils vary from heavy clay to sandy gravel, 

 and, in addition to its other good features, has a lake of clear water, 

 from ten to fifty feet deep and covering an area of about twelve acres. 



The farm is to serve as an object lesson in forestry. Upon it 

 provision is to be made for (1) an arboretum of all useful forest trees 

 that can grow in Michigan ; (2) demonstration areas for seed-bed 

 and nursery work; (3) model plantations of forest trees, and (4) 

 special experiments in forestry, relating to the various methods of 

 propogating different kinds of timber, to the raising of particular 

 forest products, and to other practical purposes. 



Through the kindness especially of the Lufkin Rule Company of 

 Saginaw; E. C. Atkins & Co., manufacturers of the famous Atkins 

 saws; the Champion Tool & Handle Works of Evart, Mich., and 

 others, a very ample and select set of woodman's tools has been 

 added to the equipment of the school. 



A large album, presented by President J. D. Hawks of the D. & 

 M. Ry., and containing probably the most complete set of photographic 

 views of Michigan lumbering, forms one of the most valuable additions 

 to the forestry library. 



The absence of any well-regulated forests, similar to those of 

 many European countries, might be regarded as a serious drawback in 

 the educational facilities, since such woods represent the goal to be 

 attained. However, in the United States the student prepares himself 

 for a task quite different from that of managing a forest as a superior 

 officer, with the woods, the market, the forest officers and laborers all 

 completely and permanently organized and prepared. His duty will 

 largely be that of caring for wild woods, for cut- and burned-over 

 lands, and the improvement of badly mismanaged wood-lots, where 

 everything is new, everything yet to be done, the forest to be made, 

 the help to be organized and trained, the market to be sought and im- 

 proved, and the people of the district to be convinced of the useful- 

 ness of the forest and the necessity of its proper protection. For these 

 reasons it is believed that the field-work in forests where the wild 

 wood conditions have existed for centuries, and under the very condi- 

 tions which the American forester has to face in actual practice, will 



