CHRISTMAS TREE PLANTATIONS 



753 



By camouflaging the Ann Arbor elements involved 

 in 1913, the state fire authorities had been coaxed into 

 accepting federal fire funds under the Weeks Law, 

 but for a number of years the Forest Service inspector's 

 reports had been delicately calibrated to the compre- 

 hension of the local officials. But by 1919 the local 

 incompetence had become too hard to overlook and 

 the fires had been very severe. The inspector's report 

 for 1919 was unusually candid. The Michigan fire or- 

 ganization was a rather sad affair. Lansing has failed 

 or refused to back up its own field chief. 



Lansing was very irate over such treatment at the 

 hand of rank and theoretical outsiders and was quoted 

 to the effect that the only new fire law needed would 



be one to "keep that government inspector out 



of the state." But it was too late. Suddenly the old 

 machinery and the old-timers found themselves "in 

 wrong," and didn't at all know why or what to do 

 about it. 



From Washington was coming a great new campaign 

 for an adequate national forest policy. 



Enter The Detroit News 



The Detroit News, disturbed over the prices of pulp, 

 had learned that with ten million acres of the state in 

 idle forest land fit to grow pulp, even a great news- 

 paper organization might not dare undertake growing 

 its own raw material on its own lands in its own state. 

 Fires and unjust timberland tax laws would make it 

 too hazardous. A third of the state was skidding into 

 bankruptcy. A sixth of the state was owned by some 

 30 land concerns. Within ten years the state had lost 

 10,500 farms. A billion feet of lumber was being im- 

 ported every year, with freight bills alone as great as 

 the cost of growing local timber. Thousands of acres 

 of abandoned and bankrupt land were coming back to 

 the state every month and at increasing rates. These 

 things the News broadcasted in a great campaign. 

 Lansing was uncomfortably aware that the News had 

 not published all it might. 



Development bureau and chamber of commerce sec- 

 retaries were beginning to note the fire damaged soil, 

 that range stock could suffocate in smoke and that 

 tourists did not spend cash for foul air and roads 

 blocked with burning snags. 



A national farm journal of great circulation was 

 commenting at length on north Lake State affairs; a 

 lecturer of the State Grange was listing the articles 

 for assigned reading. 



Lansing Casts Overboard A Jonah 



To all of this official Lansing reacted uneasily, hope- 

 fully casting overboard, from time to time, first a 

 Jonah and then a piece of pie. What the dickens? 

 What's got into 'em, anyway? 



With the advent of Governor Groesbeck, in 1920, 

 came a great shakeup and consolidation of offices. 

 Departments of Conservation and Agriculture were 

 created, the head of each directly responsible for all 

 the activities under him and directly responsible to the 

 Governor. A Conservation Commission, presumably 

 to act in advisory capacity to the Director of Con- 

 servation, and successor to the Public Domain Commis- 

 sion, was provided. Its Chairman hailed from the Sag- 

 inaw district. Its Secretary hailed from the Saginaw 

 district. The Director of Conservation, ex-Game, 

 Fire and Fish Warden, was chairman of the Republican 

 committee of the Saginaw district. All Game, Fur, 

 Fish, Fire, state land and State Forest affairs now be- 

 came concentrated where responsibility for their admin- 

 istration could not be escaped. Everything began to co- 

 ordinate most harmoniously. 



But only began. Like a comet flaming among the 

 old and drowsy constellations of Michigan conserva- 

 tionists, came James Oliver Curwood, of Owosso, 

 author and playwright, urging the sportsmen of the 

 state to arise and assert their rights. Protest meetings 

 were held, headlines flared in half the front pages of the 

 state, threats of libel suits reverberated through the 

 press and the Governor's personal attention was invited 

 to the matters in issue. And just as election campaign 

 was about to open, too. 



On the heels of all this unprecedented motion came 

 Harold Titus' novel, "Timber," with official Lansing 

 pictured true to life and fire and tax affairs made 

 real and understandable. 



Now, drat these professors and writers, anyway ! 



Well, if you can't lick the opposition, next best 

 thing's to absorb 'em. Savonarola had no typewriter. 



CHRISTMAS TREE PLANTATIONS 



/^N a subject of intense, perennial interest Christmas 

 ^-^ trees the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion has issued a bulletin by A. K. Chittenden, from 

 which the following excerpts are taken. 



In order to determine the practicability of growing 

 Christmas trees as a farm crop, the Department of For- 

 estry of the Michigan Agricultural College established an 

 experimental Christmas tree plantation at East Lansing 

 in 1909. Sufficient time has now elapsed to warrant 

 definite conclusions being drawn from this plantation. 



The area devoted to the experiment was 0.28 of an 

 acre. 



Four-year-old Norway spruce transplants were used. 

 These trees at the time of planting were about 1.4 feet 

 high, good, strong, sturdy stock. They were planted with 

 a triangular spacing of 3 feet, at the rate of 5,584 to the 

 acre. The marking was done by a horse marker. 



The plantation was cultivated three times during the 

 first season. No hand work has been done smce the 

 planting. Two cultivations were given the plantation 



