Why Should Trees and Forests Be Planted And 

 Protected In Minnesota? 



BY MYRTLE BUCK, 

 Detroit, Minn. 



The larger part of our forests are located in the 

 neighborhood of the Great Lakes. In these forests 

 are many kinds of trees, especially 

 the evergreen, such as hemlock, 

 spruce, white pine and cedar. There 

 are also hardwood trees. 



Trees have been cut down and 

 wasted so much that if the state 

 government does not take the mat- 

 ter in its hands, in a few years we 

 will have a great shortage of wood 

 material for construction. 



For instance, it takes about three 

 thousand ties for one miles of railroad, and every 

 year from ten to twenty per cent of them have to 

 be renewed. 



Forests prevent floods. The trees collect and hold 

 water and prevent the water from running into the 

 gullies and rivers and so causing floods in the spring 

 when the snow melts. The trees shade the snow so 

 it does not melt so rapidly. In the fall when the 

 leaves fall and rot they enrich the soil. It adds de- 

 cayed vegetable matter to the soil which needs it. 



No where else in the United States does there exist 

 such immense productive districts yet unsettled as 

 are to be found in Northern Minnesota. 



These lands are not bleak prairies open to the 



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