LUMBERMEN AND FOREST LEGISLATION 37 



ing 2,000,000 acres in the upper peninsula of Michigan and it is expected that 

 there will be 4,000.000 acres in the association within six months. The or- 

 ganization is broad enough to take in all of Wisconsin and Michigan. 



A thorough private patrol backed by a law like that proposed for Wis- 

 consin, under which the state would provide a regular patrolman for every 

 40,000 acres or less of forest land, will go a long way toward eliminating fires. 

 The only laws that will be of any avail will be those that will help the state, 

 and private owners do that work. 



Some say that the lumbermen never have stood their share of the taxes. 

 I will venture to say that no other business ever received less return for taxes 

 paid than the lumbermen of the north central states. They have had little op 

 no police protection ; hunters and fishermen roam their lands at will and set 

 fires when and where they please. They have had few roads, and no public 

 improvements worth mentioning. 



There should be no rigid laws providing that certain things must be done 

 regardless of locality. The conditions often are very different in adjoining 

 geographical townships. What is feasible in one county may prove otherwise 

 in the next. It would seem as though able commissions, as far as possible 

 non-political, clothed with the necessary authority could best handle this mat- 

 ter. Nothing must be done that will be such a burden upon the lumbermen 

 that they will have any harder time meeting the ruinous competition of the 

 manufacturers of yellow pine in the South. No benefit would accrue to the 

 citizens of these lake states in that way. On the other hand, nothing must be 

 done to stop the development of the farms that follow in the wake of the 

 logger. How important this is maj^ be seen in the fact that upper Michigan 

 buys 95 per cent of what she eats. This great importation is due to the lack 

 of developed farms, not because she can not grow more of her food supplies. 



Experience has taught the forester that the best way to prevent fires from 

 spreading is by clearing out paths or fire lines. It is possible that the clearing 

 up of a strip of land a few rods wide between the slashings and the timber 

 may help to keep fires within small areas. If that plan was adopted and the 

 lumbermen were compelled to cut the tall dead timber of any variety for a 

 certain distance back from the fire lines, at the same time they cut the sound 

 trees, and a good system of patrol was put in force, I feel quite certain that 

 large fires would be a thing of the past. The cleared lanes around slashings 

 would make access to fires much easier than it is today. Fires are more easily 

 prevented than stopped. If they do start get to them as soon as possible and 

 put them out when they are small. 



The meat of the nut is an active campaign on the part of every one to 

 prevent fires and quick action if they start. In this matter an ounce of preven- 

 tion is worth a pound of cure. The fuel is always on hand and always will be. 

 No law can prevent its accumulation. It is necessary. 



Nature takes care of this accumulation by decay, adding humus to the 

 soil that will be needed by the farmer of tomorrow in his effort to feed the 

 ever-increasing population. Very soon the clearing of land from which the 

 timber has been cut will be entirely a problem for the homesteader or pioneer 

 farmer, and not for the lumberman to solve. Cut-over lands suited for agri- 

 culture will not lie idle long in the future. 



Let us make haste slowly. The only laws that can be of lasting value to 

 us will be those the enforcement of which will not be hindered by politics. 

 Laws passed on the impulse of the moment, urged by those with little or no 

 practical knowledge of conditions, will be poor laws. In the opinion of many 

 we have too many laws of that kind now, I can see no remedy for this unless 

 gatherings similar to this one, at which all interested parties confer, are lu 

 become ever a more important part of our commercial and political life. 



