MINNESOTA STATE FORESTS 



287 



and marketed for the benefit of the state ; in fact, sales 

 have already been made, and conservative instead of de- 

 structive logging will be conducted. If the adjoining 

 regions are agricultural and become settled, the settlers 

 will find in the state lands a permanent supply of timber 

 for fuel, fencing and building purposes. They will be 

 able to use their teams in winter woods work and to sell 



destructive manner or burned so severely that planting 

 is needed to cover the barren hills of rock, or fill in the 

 gaps between the scattered patches of young growth. 



There will be a considerable amount of ripe timber to 

 be sold annually from the state forests, bringing a healthy 

 and perpetual revenue to the school fund and other trust 

 funds of the state, and this from lands which otherwise 



their produce at good prices in the logging camps. The must become worse than unproductive. As the forests 

 forests on these lands will preserve the moisture and 

 furnish a permanent water supply for the many small 

 streams that head in them. They will become perpetual 

 breeding grounds for game, game birds and fur bearing 

 animals, and will be invaluable in attracting hunters, 

 campers and tourists to the state. Moreover, the time 

 is rapidly coming when many more people from the 

 cities of the Mississippi 

 Valley will want to build 

 summer camps or homes of 

 more or less permanence in 

 the wilder parts of the 

 state, and these state lands 

 leased to such people will 

 bring a large revenue to the 

 state direct as well as to the 

 people of the state gener- 

 ally. 



The new state forests are 

 situated in the great conif- 

 erous country. The two 

 dominant trees are the 

 white and Norway pine. 

 There is considerable jack 

 pine, and many other fine 

 evergreens such as white 

 and black spruce, balsam 

 and cedar, the latter va- 

 rieties growing in situations 

 not suitable for pine. There 

 are, however, enough broad- 

 leaved trees to add variety 

 and to give to the more 

 somber evergreens the 

 charm of the mixed forest. 

 Predominating among the 



broad-leaved vrees are the paper birch, the common pop- 

 lar or aspen, the yellow birch, large-toothed aspen, elm, 

 ash, hornbeam, and even sugar maple on some of the 

 rocky ridges. 



No comprehensive estimate has ever been made of the 

 timber on these lands; but the forest rangers, in con- 

 nection with their fire protective work and slash disposal 

 inspection, have gained a fair idea of the timber on con- 

 siderable portions, and the state forester in a more or 

 less systematic way has seen and collected data on other 

 portions. It may be said, of the 350,000 acres in the 

 state forests, 125,000 acres are fairly well timbered lands 



are better protected and become better stocked with young 

 trees, mostly of nature's sowing, the returns will increase 

 immensely. Both spruce and pine grow rapidly in north- 

 ern Minnesota, quite commonly adding five hundred 

 board feet to the acre in a season. This in the case of 

 pine is a revenue of five dollars an acre each year, and 

 in the case of spruce two to three dollars, with the proba- 

 bility of a great rise in 

 spruce values before many 

 years. 



It is safe to say that the 

 rocky lands embraced in the 

 state forests, based on a 

 valuation of five to six dol- 

 lars per acre, will, under 

 forest management, pay to 

 the various trust funds not 

 less than six per cent, which 

 is a fair average profit, and 

 fifty per cent greater than 

 that obtained under the old 

 practice of selling such 

 land and taking four per 

 cent securities. 



The scenery is the most 

 variegated and beautiful 

 that can be found within 

 easy reach of the Twin 

 Cities and other centers of 

 population in the Missis- 

 sippi Valley. Innumerable 

 lakes and streams are to be 

 found, and of all sizes and 

 characters. Most of the 



GARDEN ON SHORE OF NORTH LAKE 



A large part of the garden was covered with piles of rock. The nature 



of the ground is indicated by the fact that it took twenty years to clear, lakes are clear and deeD 



half an acre. *' 



and their shores are cover- 

 ed with primeval forest to the water's edge. No region 

 offers better opportunities to the camper, the fisherman 

 and the canoeist. In canoe routes there is a choice of 

 all degrees of length and difficulty. Desirable camping 

 sites are everywhere, with good water in the immediate 

 proximity. Much of the country is a primitive wilder- 

 ness, where one may read the story of creation as he 

 follows trails and canoe routes and worships God in His 

 own temples. So different and so unique is the scenery 

 that a resident of the central or southern section of 

 Minnesota, or other parts of the Mississippi valley, will 

 find this part of the state as strange and wonderful as 

 with upward of a billion feet of standing timber; 125,- he would find the scenery of Norway or Switzerland. 

 000 acres contain young or half grown spruce and pine ; From Lake Superior the land rises abruptly to a height 

 and the remaining 100,000 acres have been logged in a of from one to two thousand feet. Over this slope tumble 



