1900- 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



and old skidvvays. On the hills the clear 

 sand of the Pine lands, before cuttings 

 were made, gave no support for fires. 

 The wet Cedar and Tamarack swamps 

 protected themselves. After cutting, the 

 slashings, fire weed and grasses became 

 the kindling. 



The state which has set the pace for all 

 others in fish culture has apparently ex- 



owners practically lost title by non-pay- 

 ment of taxes ; the logging railroad spurs 

 were abandoned ; and each year the fires 

 consumed more and more of the less valu- 

 able Pine, Cedar, Poplar, and hardwoods. 

 The tax liens are so heavy that the state is 

 practically, but not technically, the owner. 

 Now, since the railroads and settlements 

 have reached the edges of the burnings, 



SECOND GROWTH POPLAR KILLED BY FIRE. 



celled [all in riotous waste of its timber 

 wealth. The pity of it is that this useless 

 waste could be stopped at small cost. 

 Never was there an easier place for start- 

 ing a fire. A smoker needs to be only 

 ordinarily careless with his match. But 

 never, also, was there an easier region for 

 fighting one. A few men with tools for 

 handling sand can turn the flanks and 

 rapidly narrow the front of a Michigan 

 fire. But, owing to an extraordinary 

 complication of ownership, no one person 

 is vitally interested except in isolated 

 cases of large tract ownership ; for after 

 the first great crop of White Pine was 

 burned or marketed, the land was com- 

 monly assumed to be worthless ; the 



and the developments of civilization have 

 shown new uses for wood not formerly 

 considered valuable, it is easy to look 

 backward and, with visions of the wealth 

 that has gone up in smoke, sigh for what 

 might have been. 



Even now it is not too late. Although 

 a great deal of hardwood is destroyed 

 yearlv, nevertheless there is apparently 

 enough left to make cheap furniture, tool 

 handles, spools and the like, for a nation. 

 There are bunches of Norways, which, 

 because of their location on the sand hills, 

 are only occasionally burned ; Cedar, below 

 the size for railroad ties, which in the 

 swamps is partially protected from fire ; 

 second-growth Poplar, which down to 



