1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



263 



THE MINNESOTA FORESTRY PLAN.* 



BY JUDSOX N. CROSS, 

 President of Minnesota State Forestry Board. 



At the January, 1896, annual meeting 

 of the Minnesota State Forestry Associa- 

 tion, probably the oldest in the country, 

 the writer suggested a plan for an inex- 

 pensive forestry system, under State con- 

 trol, which won the instant adoption and 

 earnest and unflagging support of the 

 Association. The press gave the scheme 

 most generous indorsement, and urged the 

 passage, by the Legislature, of the bill 

 which was drawn on the lines suggested to 

 the Association. All of the allied societies 

 and boards, agricultural, horticultural, etc., 

 discussed the plan fully, and by resolutions 

 urged the Legislature to crystallize the sug- 

 gestions into a law. The Legislature of 

 1897 considered the bill, the Lower House 

 passed it, and it was recommended for 

 passage by the Committee on Forestry in 

 the Senate, but there was not time to reach 

 it. All the features of the plan were 

 adopted except one, which the writer be- 

 lieves vital to the success of the plan and 

 which is referred to below. The Legisla- 

 ture of 1899, passed the law as passed by 

 the Lower House in 1897. In 1897 the 

 members of the Legislature, or rather some 

 of them, had to be urged, and committees 

 had to be convinced, but by 1899, a great 

 educational work had been done through a 

 system devised by the late J. O. Barrett, 

 the then enthusiastic Secretary of the State 

 Forestry Association, and after his death 

 ably carried forward by Geo. W. Strand, 

 his successor. 



The popular educational system, inau- 

 gurated by Mr. Barrett, has brought such 

 excellent results, that it can be commended 

 to every Forestry association in the country. 



An article on some forestry subject, 

 written for plain people, was furnished, 

 gratis, to about eighty weekly papers, 

 mostly in Minnesota, but to some in north- 

 ern Iowa and western Wisconsin, every 



* Read at the meeting of the American For- 

 estry Association in New York on June 26th. 



two weeks. These articles were read by 

 the farmers, and discussed. The daily 

 papers kept the subject before the people 

 in editorials and in news articles, as well 

 as in scientific articles about the principles 

 of forestry, so that when the Legislature 

 of 1899 convened, the members had be- 

 come posted and educated about forestry, 

 and understood the importance to the State, 

 and to the next generation, of their creat- 

 ing the beginning at least of a system of 

 forest preservation. 



Our State still has thousands of pioneers 

 who had to destroy the forests to make 

 homes, and to these an expensive system 

 of reforestation could not be presented. 

 Such persons must be persuaded by argu- 

 ments, which the articles furnished, to look 

 ahead for the benefit of their children. 



In a general way the northern half of 

 Minnesota, except the Red River valley, 

 on the eastern side, is or was a timbered 

 region, as was the northeasterly third of 

 the southern half. East of the Mississippi 

 River and north of the Northern Pacific 

 Railroad were the great Pine forests. The 

 Pine forests are often found on sandy or 

 rough lands. In the northern part of the 

 State there is a great deal of ridgy, rocky 

 and stony land. Much of the so-called 

 cut-over lands, especially the Pine lands 

 from which the Pines have been removed, 

 is practically worthless for agricultural 

 purposes ; yet throughout all this region, 

 there are interspersed large and small 

 bodies of good agricultural land, which 

 are being rapidly settled by hardy farmers, 

 who prefer the woods over the prairies t'< >r 

 homes. A Pine forest, first cut over, or 

 losrsred, then burnt over, is a most desolate 



O O ' 



regon. 



The writer's suggestions to the State For- 

 estry Association, the principal lV.it ureso 

 which, with one exception, have been on 

 acted in the law creating the State Forestry 

 Board and designating State forest were. 



