748 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



si>ecialist, all of these men being specially trained in their 

 own lines, working together in closest co-oi)eration." 

 Coming from so eminent an authority, does not that 



put it up to the agricultural colleges to give forestry the 

 piace in their educational activities which the interests 

 of their State demand? 



THE COMMON ENEMY 



THE MAKER OF 

 IDLE LAND 



Forest destruction breeds 

 forest fires. In a dense for- 

 est the coolness, the shade, 

 the surface litter of decaying 

 vegetation, all hold the native moisture. The hot sun 

 filters through the leafy canopy in slender shafts that 

 scarcely temper the humidity; the drying winds are 

 checked. Only a prolonged drought can make the forest 

 highly inflammable. With the timber cut, all this is 

 changed, the canopy is gone, the sun now reaches the 

 surface litter and dries it out. The debris from cutting 

 seasons quickly, each resinous branch a potential torch. 

 Days or weeks elapse without rain and the kindling is 

 ready for the first chance spark. Once ignited, it burns 

 fiercely and fast. Scattered vegetation in its path is 

 killed but not consumed, and remains to dry out and pro- 

 vide fuel for another fire. Repeated fires reduce the 

 vegetation to the poorest of weeds or brush, and an area 

 has been laid waste, with only charred stumps to show 

 what nature once produced there. 



If a waiting settler could 

 turn this clearing to account, 

 and build in the ashes a pro- 

 ductive farm home, the man- 

 ner of clearing would be less important. All honor to 

 those hardy farmers, who in our modern times, typify the 

 pioneers. But in nine cases out of ten, there is no wait- 



WHY BURNS RE- 

 MAIN BURNS 



ing settler. The land which has escaped clearing for 

 generations is often fit for no crop except timber. And 

 so, almost always, the burned area remains only a burn, 

 to be added to that desolate region of blackened stumps 

 and tangled briers which forms the idle land problem in 

 the Lake States. 



It is unthinkable that an area which in the aggregate 

 is as large as the State of New York should remain idle, 

 or even in a condition of low productivity. Exi:ier- 

 ience more and more points to the fact that much of it 

 will reach its highest usefulness in growing again the 

 forests it formerly supported. And since fire is chiefly 

 responsible for the idle land problem the greatest step in 

 the solution of that problem will be the control of fire. 



As long as a region is sub- 

 ject to inordinate fire hazards, 

 there is little chance that a 

 timber crop requiring fifty 

 years or more to mature will 

 long survive. No grower of timber can take the chance. 

 We must reduce the fire loss before forestry can find the 

 business basis which will make it successful. Yet curi- 

 ously enough, if we had well stocked forests in place of 

 slashings and old burns the forest fire menace would be- 

 come relatively small, for the dense green forest pro- 

 tects itself. If we help nature to establish forests nature 

 will help us in fighting the common enemy, fire. 



HELP NATURE 

 AND NATURE 

 WILL HELP US 



MICHIGAN'S LAND SURVEY 



A PROGRESSIVE 

 UNDERTAKING 



One of the most encourag- 

 ing and at the same time 

 most progressive steps yet 

 undertaken in land manage- 

 ment is that contemplated by the State of Michigan. It 

 is a Land Economic Survey, the object of which is to 

 gather for each county the information needed to direct 

 the development of land and other natural resources 

 along sound economic lines. The survey is to be in the 

 nature of an inventory of resources and a determination 

 in so far as may be possible of how land and water may 

 be put to its highest use. 



The project is already under way, having been started 

 during the past summer by co-operative financing on the 

 part of the State Departments of Conservation and Agri- 

 culture, the Michigan Agricultural College and the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan. The executive direction of the 

 work has been assigned the State Geologist. Field crews 

 completed Charlevoix County this summer, studying and 

 recording information on land tyi^es, soil values, land 

 uses, forest conditions, recreational development and pos- 

 sibilities, fish and game, water power, forest fires, taxa- 

 tion problems, etc. In order to continue the work to 

 include other counties of the State, the Legislature will 

 be asked for an annual appropriation of $200,000. 



THE STRENGTH 

 OF THE SOIL 



There is probably no State 

 in the union more in need of 

 such a survey than Michigan. 

 Many parts of the State have 

 been for years and still are going backward because of 

 misuse of land. Many counties, it is said, are bankrupt 

 or nearly so and land is reverting to the State at the 

 rate of 100,000 acres a year for non-payment of taxes. 

 Yet all of this land has value if put to its proper use. 

 What is it best suited for? If not for agriculture now 

 or in the near future, what is its value for forestry, 

 recreation, wild life or some other economic use? And 

 how can its proper utilization be brought about? The 

 survey, it is expected, will answer these questions and 

 thus provide an intelligent and comprehensive basis for 

 Michigan's development. 



"Any policy which does not 

 provide for economic utiliza- 

 tion of all land is inade- 

 quate," says Michigan's di- 

 rector of Agricultural De- 

 velopment, "it would be fortunate if it could be shown 

 to the owner that he might expect a fair return from 

 growing trees as a crop. It would permanently prevent 



(Continued on Page 758) 



THE INCENTIVE 

 TO PRIVATE 

 REFORESTATION 



