1899- 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



255 



This last field is only one of many of 

 similar character, though many of them 

 when cultivation ceases are pastured, 

 which invariably results in an imperfect 

 cover and poor quality of body growth. 

 Dogwood and Redbud are the common 

 under-growth. Often grapevines get in 

 and become a great detriment. 



The fact that by the time the young 

 trees have reached this age the owners 

 often think the timber rotation of sufficient 



length and clear the land again, prevents, 

 in a good many instances, these young 

 forests from growing to a profitable age. 

 The lessons from them, however, are full 

 of significance and encouragement for those 

 who would take such tracts in hand for 

 forest purposes. 



S. C. Mason. 



Berea College, 

 Berea, Kentucky. 



Second Growth Pine vs. Agriculture. 



Some Views on the Desirability of Crops Under Varied Conditions. 



In discussing problems of forest policy, 

 sufficient account is not always taken of the 

 varying needs of localities with regard to 

 maintaining forest areas. Often the matter 

 is treated as if the preservation of forests 

 everywhere and under all conditions were 

 a desirable thing. Thereby local antago- 

 nism is aroused and desirable legislative 

 measures prevented. 



I wish to discuss briefly the question of 

 to what extent it is desirable that forests be 

 maintained in those portions of Michigan, 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota, into which ag- 

 ricultural settlers are now actively going. 

 As everybody knows, these regions have 

 heretofore been the chief seats of the White 

 Pine industry. Everybody also knows 

 that from large portions of this area the 

 mercantile Pine has disappeared, and that 

 in most of this territory soft wood lum- 

 bering on a large scale will have come to 

 an end in about ten years. The people of 

 the region all appreciate this and are gen- 

 erally looking towards agriculture to re- 

 place lumbering as their principal means 

 of subsistence. The question now is: 

 Will it be most advantageous to them to 

 continue this attribute ; or would it be 

 wiser to adopt such measures as will es- 

 tablish, by the side of agriculture, a series 

 of industries based upon raw material ob- 

 tained from local forests. 



It should be stated at the very beginning 

 of such an inquiry, that this question will 



be settled with sole reference to the wishes 

 of the local population. It may well be 

 that it would be for the benefit of the 

 nation if these tracts were set apart ex- 

 clusively for the purpose of raising White 

 Pine timber. But assuredly such will not 

 be the case. The land in this region is 

 nearly all in private hands, except only the 

 northern part of Minnesota. So there 

 can be no question of establishing a na- 

 tional forest reserve, either in Michigan or 

 Wisconsin. There are in the latter two 

 states no very large tracts into which the 

 agricultural settler has not already made 

 his entrance. Railways are traversing 

 the region in all directions, towns and 

 villages are numerous and growing. The 

 time has long gone by for imposing upon 

 these territories a policy not desired by 

 them. 



In order to bring about any sort of leg- 

 islation tending to keep a considerable 

 amount of land under forest, it is necessary, 

 therefore, to convince the local residents 

 that it is for their own interest to do so. 

 At present they are very doubtful ;is to 

 this. A proposition that forests are to be 

 maintained by public authority, meets with 

 the objections that this would keep the 

 country from developing, and that the 

 country needs the taxes to be derived from 

 these lands if owned by private parties. 

 The lands denuded of their timber growth 

 are rapidly falling into the hands of specu- 



