i88 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



April 



tracts where lumbering or wood-chop- 

 ping is the principal business, but only 

 to that which the farmers cut in con- 

 nection with their ordinary farming 

 operations. That this is a source of 

 no mean income to the farmers of the 

 state may be seen from the fact that 

 the value of all the orchard products 

 for Michigan in 1899 was but $3,675,- 

 845, or less than one-half the income 

 derived from the woodlots. 



Not only is the wooded area in south- 

 ern Michigan steadily decreasing, and 

 that which is left rapidly being culled 

 of its best timber, but the farm woodlot 

 is almost universally pasture ground for 

 all kinds of live stock. Natural repro- 

 duction is thus rendered impossible. 

 Usually, whatever undergrowth there 

 may have been has been killed out, the 

 forest floor has been destroyed, and the 

 larger trees that are left are either dying 

 or will die before they reach maturity. 

 Generally speaking, then, these wood- 

 lots are in a state of decline, and it is 

 only a question of a few years when 

 many of them will have been destroyed 

 entirely. If the woodlot area is to be 

 maintained, it will be necessary to es- 

 tablish new centers of supply by actual 

 planting, and wherever at all feasible 

 to put the old woodlots under rational 

 management. 



It is argued that forests modify the 

 climate and make it more equable ; that 

 they conserve the water supply and 

 regulate itsdistribution ; that they beau- 

 tify the landscape, etc., all of which is 

 eminently true ; but any or all of these 

 arguments will not lead to extensive in- 

 dividual planting unless it can also be 

 shown that forest planting will pay 

 in money returns. Commercial profits, 

 then, must be made the basis for estab- 

 lishing forest plantations. 



That the growing of trees for profit 

 will pay has already been sufficiently 

 demonstrated to leave one in no doubt. 

 Some plantations in the middle West 

 have yielded better returns than have 

 been realized from agricultural crops in 

 the same regions. 



For example, measurements made in 

 a ten-year-old plantation of Hardy Ca- 

 talpa at Hutchinson, Kansas, showed a 

 net value of $197.55 per acre, or a 



yearly net income per acre of $19.75. 

 A grove of Red Juniper near Menlo, 

 Iowa, eighteen years old, showed an 

 average total acreage value of $184.96, 

 or a net annual value per acre of $12.27. 

 A plantation of Black Walnut eighteen 

 years old showed an acreage value of 

 $171.84, or a yearly net income per 

 acre of $9.54. Many other examples 

 equally favorable could be cited. The 

 estimates given are based upon actual 

 measurements and prices as they were 

 about two years ago, allowance being 

 made for rental on the land and all ex- 

 penses incurred in establishing and 

 maintaining the plantations, compound 

 interest at the current rates being al- 

 lowed from the time the expenditures 

 were made. 



The demand for such material as can 

 be grown in the farm woodlot is uni- 

 versally increasing, and prices are stead- 

 ily appreciating. Fence posts that could 

 be bought in the middle West ten years 

 ago at from 8 to 12 cents apiece are 

 now selling at from 10 to 20 cents each. 

 Telephone and telegraph poles have ad- 

 vanced 50 per cent in the past twenty 

 years, and railroad ties 25 per cent in 

 the same time. 



A phase of forest planting that has 

 had but little attention hitherto, but 

 one which is now coming into notice, is 

 the matter of growing wood for paper 

 pulp. The large and increasing de- 

 mand for pulp wood makes this ques- 

 tion one of special interest, and the 

 feeling is growing that planting poplar 

 for pulp is going to pay. 



It is not expected that the artificial 

 woodlots established on the farms will 

 be large. However, nearly every farm 

 has some waste land perhaps only one 

 acre, perhaps several which, for one 

 reason or another, is not fit for agri- 

 culture. It may be practically non- 

 productive as it is ; yet, if planted to 

 trees, could be made to yield good re- 

 turns. Then, too, a small portion of 

 every farm about the farm buildings 

 should be devoted to timber which 

 shall serve as a shelter belt and wind- 

 break. Such a grove, well established 

 and carefully maintained, is not only a 

 source of revenue in the products it 

 furnishes and the protection it affords,. 



