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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



As foresters well know, trees not only grow on rocky 

 land, but in many cases seem to prefer it. The young 

 trees will start among the boulders of hillsides or in the 

 crevices of solid rock, and the roots will then creep into 

 the places where moisture is always present, and will 

 even pry apart rocks and boulders while the small feed- 

 ing roots make use of every particle of soil. If one 

 should see now some of the barren, rocky, cut-over or 

 burned-over land, it would at once be apparent that it 

 could not be profitably cleared of stones in order to be 

 utilized for cultivation, because the boulders lie so close 

 together that it is easily possible to step from one to an- 

 other. On some of the extensive bedrock areas, the soil 

 covering is too thin to permit of repeated plowing, and if 

 denuded of forest covering the soil would blow or wash 



growth of trees : First, land that is strewn thickly with 

 boulders ; second, land on which the soil cover over the 

 bed rock is too thin or entirely wanting ; third, land with 

 too steep a slope ; fourth, gravel or sand where the water 

 level lies too deep. In connection with the latter point, 

 on very sandy or gravelly land such as some of the 

 poorer jack pine country trees once established will 

 reach the water level with their roots and do well, while 

 farm crops would fail except in very wet seasons; and 

 besides, when sheltering trees have been removed the 

 sand would drift. 



If lands such as these were put on the market as agri- 

 cultural, it would simply have this result: Some man 

 who has saved a few hundred dollars and wants to buy 

 cheap land, but is no judge of its agricultural value, is 



A SECTION OF THE SHORE LINE OF BEAUTIFUL SLIM LAKE, NORTH OF ELY 



Innumerable lakes and streams are to be found, of all sizes and kinds, and to the lover of camping and outdoor life no more completely satisfying 

 surroundings can be imagined than those offered by the wonderful state forests of Minnesota. 



away, and the vegetable duff would burn up in case it 

 ever caught fire. On steep hillsides where the soil might 

 be deep enough for crops, the vegetable mold would 

 soon erode if the protective covering of brush and trees 

 with their roots were removed. One may see many illus- 

 trations of this kind of soil erosion along streams of Min- 

 nesota, not only in the north but in the southern part of 

 the state as well. Many thousands of acres of bluffs 

 along the streams of southeastern Minnesota, where there 

 has been excessive pasturing or cropping of land which 

 now lies idle, should never have been denuded of their 

 original cover of timber. 



In this part of the country there are four conditions 

 which make land unprofitable for agriculture, but which 

 nevertheless interfere very little or not at all with a good 



likely to have this kind of a "farm" unloaded on him. He 

 will stay on it a year or two, spend the money that he 

 has saved, and then become discouraged and let the 

 property revert to the speculator who sold it. If the 

 speculator's conscience is as elastic as his purse he will 

 again sell the land, and the process will be repeated in- 

 definitely. In the meantime, the disappointed purchaser 

 will do a great deal of "black eye" advertising for the 

 other great areas of our northern Minnesota lands which 

 have excellent agricultural possibilities, and ought to be 

 settled by farmers. 



From these non-agricultural lands, if left in forest, 

 the adjacent settlements and the state will derive much 

 benefit. As soon as the market conditions and transpor- 

 tation facilities warrant, the mature timber can be sold 



