'.t)2 



THE FORESTER. 



November, 



tree growth only, let us raise trees, and 

 that kind and size of trees which pay best. 



A look at the Pine woods surrounding 

 us on Leech Lake tells us in a moment 

 how trees should be raised. At the foot 

 of their mother-trees we find millions of 

 small Pine seedlings trailing on the ground. 

 Where a windfall has removed the parent 

 trees, the children at once shoot ahead 

 towards the sky, growing at the rate of 

 twenty inches per year. Why should we 

 not imitate the wind, cutting all such old 

 trees which have reached merchantable 

 size and allowing their progeny of seed- 

 lings to fill the gap ! This natural system 

 of working a forest will allow ground fit 

 only for tree-growth to continue to be pro- 

 ductive after the virgin timber has been 

 removed. If Nature herself were not sure 

 to restore young trees in the place of the 

 old ones, there would not be any forests 

 on this globe. Imitating nature's ways, it 

 is easy to maintain forests. 



Why, now, does the timber owner al- 

 low the ground to be barren ? Why does 

 he give it up to the state for non-payment 

 of taxes after cutting the old trees? Does 

 he not realize that sapling trees thirty years 

 old are worth twenty-five cents apiece, if 

 the value of trees 120 years old is $2, fig- 

 uring at three percent, compound interest? 

 Does he not see that skillful handling of 

 the ax when removing old trees can result 

 in 500 saplings per acre, which will grow 

 up into timber of superior quality stand- 

 ing close together and clearing one another 

 from side branches? 



The timber owner is well aware of all 

 these natural facts. But he is aware, too, 

 of another not natural fact : The absolute 

 certainty of the second growth to fall a 

 prey to fires before it has time to fortify 

 itself against conflagration by forming a 

 heavy layer of fire-proof bark around its 

 stump. In the case of the flat-rooted 

 White Pine, even old trees, having their 

 long roots imbedded in combustile mould, 

 are badly subject to death from fires. The 

 owner is undoubtedly wise, when leaving 

 the land bare and barren. 



But is the commonwealth wise in allow- 

 ing the area of barren land to increase an- 

 nually, in Minnesota alone, 125,000 acres? 



Should it not either employ a staff of guards 

 to prevent fires on private land after lumber- 

 ing, or else establish as a national forest 

 and keep under proper care all such land 

 as is fit for growing trees, and for nothing 

 else ? 



We, the public, ruling and loving this 

 country, must select through our legisla- 

 tures that way which is best adapted to our 

 peculiar economic and legal conditions. 

 For our legislators, a knowledge of the 

 facts prevailing in northern Minnesota, 

 Michigan and Wisconsin is indispensable, 

 if they want to solve the difficult problem. 

 Col. John S. Cooper's excursion, starting 

 from Chicago on September 28th, affords 

 a chance to see the actual conditions. The 

 facts form the argument upon which the 

 urgently needed change of Governmental 

 land policy must be based. 



Two trains, consisting of thirty cars 

 each, loaded high with 1 10,000 feet board 

 measure of pine logs, passed the depot 

 while the tourists were awaiting their train. 

 Six freights of that description pass 

 Walker day by day, each one carrying to 

 the mills what the last 150 years have pro- 

 duced on an area of twelve acres. There 

 is not one, but hundreds of logging camps 

 in the woods, and we might well be proud 

 of the achievements of American genius in 

 forest utilization. We do business on a 

 larger scale than all Europe taken together. 

 Minnesota alone produces 1,250,000,000 

 feet of lumber annually, and it might con- 

 tinue to do so if 10,000,000 acres of pine 

 land were treated after conservative prin- 

 ciples. 



A short ride through interesting forests 

 and swamps takes us over to Cass Lake. 

 The white man has not had a chance yet 

 to ruin the beauty of the Chippewa re- 

 serve. Instigated by the dead-and-down 

 timber act, he has tried, of course, to put 

 his hand on its chief value, the timber. 

 As there was not enough dead-and-down 

 timber to make logging remunerative, he 

 has worked hard with kerosene and fire- 

 brand to accelerate the death rate of trees. 

 Charred Pine trees on hundreds of acres 

 bear witness to the deed. 



There cannot be any doubt that on good 

 land the farmer's plow must follow the 



