1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



215 



The writer has seen much of the selling 

 of lands in the Pine region and his greatest 

 present interest in the forestry movement, 

 which is taking on new and practical life 

 in America, arises from a sense of the 

 wrong policy of settling farmers on our 

 sandy lands. Good lands in the wooded 

 districts are much more profitable at 

 present prices than the poorer sandy lands 

 at the lowest prices or even at no price. 

 The farther one goes west toward the 

 great prairies in the pine regions of nor- 

 thern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, 

 the more frequent are the periods of sum- 

 mer drought. A combination of sandy, 

 leachy, poverty-stricken soil, with irregula- 

 rity of rainfall, is a poor basis for building 

 up a good family of American citizens. 

 Such lands can not even support good rural 

 schools, let alone provide means for send- 

 ing children away for secondary education. 

 I know neighborhoods where many of the 

 pioneer homes have been abandoned be- 

 cause a few droughty years have made the 

 mortgages thrive so fast that the farmers 

 were bankrupted ; and yet these lands will 

 support tree growth. These same farmers 

 had better have purchased small tracts of 

 3ur western bonanza farms at present 

 prices and have paid for them on the crop- 

 payment plan. Every county in the forest 

 regions of the three states mentioned has 

 large areas of good farm lands. The 

 larger part of our soils of mixed clay and 

 sand, and of boulder clay, of silt soils, of 

 sandy loams and of peaty lands should be 

 thus utilized for agricultural purposes. 



The States and the National Govern- 

 ment should teach the folly of trying to 

 build up strong, prosperous homes on 

 light, weak lands. They should go much 

 further, also, and use every practical 

 means available to keep these lands under 

 Forest crops. The plan of encouraging 

 private owners to manage their forest 

 lands and farm wood lots properly is in 

 harmony with American institutions, and 

 :he country is to be congratulated that Sec- 

 retary Wilson and Mr. Pinchot are meet- 

 ing with success in inaugurating this plan 

 D helping timber owners to help them- 

 selves. The various schemes which have 

 sprung up in many quarters for National 



and State forest reserves seem to the coun- 

 try, on first inspection, to be a visionary 

 way of spending money and creating a 

 larger class of public officials. But the 

 national mind is in an expansive mood, 

 and, fortunately, the seeds sown by the 

 advocates of a State and Government for- 

 est policy have responded in the fertile 

 soil of the times and are multiplying with 

 unprecedented rapidity. 



Large tracts of our sandy lands, and of 

 our mountainous lands, could be acquired 

 by the States and Government at a nominal 

 cost, or could be retained by the Govern- 

 ment without cost. Looking at all our lands 

 as Uncle Sam's great farm no one can doubt 

 that the two classes last mentioned should 

 be a part of the great woodlot. Uncle Sam's 

 tenants, the farmers, cannot thrive on 

 these lands, nor can they make any money 

 on them with which to pay him taxes to 

 support schools, build roads, and run the 

 government. Besides, they cannot raise 

 him a good lot of tenants for the next gen- 

 eration, nor can they supply him with 

 strong, well-educated citizens to inject 

 into the life of his cities. If Uncle Sam 

 leaves his woodlots to his tenants they will 

 not take good care of them, because 

 profits seem to be too far in the distance. 

 But if he will set aside woodlots in each 

 sand} 7 or mountainous county and will 

 have his agents care for them and employ 

 the young men, who live on the neighbor- 

 ing good farm lands, to harvest his timber 

 crops, he will sometime brag about his 

 wisdom. 



It is greatly to the interest of every set- 

 tler on good land in counties having large 

 areas of sandy soil to have these poor 

 lands under proper forest management. 

 The opportunities for remunerative labor 

 in winter, the cheap fuel, the climatic 

 benefits of the forests, the better financial 

 conditions of the community, and the 

 greater home demand in proportion to 

 supply, for horses, grains, vegetables, 

 meats and other farm products, make it 

 important to the farmer to have forests on 

 adjoining poor lands under a system of 

 management which will make them pro- 

 ductive. Towns and villages often object 

 to forest reserves in their near vicinity. 



