1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



229 



not all together. They are in scat- 

 tered localities and mostly on mountains 

 and on sandy soil. These forests have 

 good roads through them, and they are 

 practically national parks, attractive for 

 tourists, and our American travelers 

 find great delight in going through 

 them. 



These are samples of what some of 

 the European countries have been doing 

 for a long time, and they show what 

 could be done in this country. Of 

 course, the revenue of the forest would 

 not be so large in this country as in 

 countries thickly peopled and where 

 labor is cheaper and a market is easier 

 of access. 



It is said we must wait until there is 

 a strong public sentiment before we can 

 accomplish much in forestry. There 

 is a good deal of sentiment now for for- 

 estry. Governor De Witt Clinton did 

 not wait for any very strong public 

 sentiment before he built the Erie Canal. 

 They laughed at him, and many called 

 it " Clinton's ditch." He was a states- 

 man, and he put it through. There 

 was no very great public pressure 

 brought to bear upon our statesmen in 

 Minnesota, of whom Governor Ramsey 

 was the leader, to provide by law that 

 all the school lands should be sold for 

 not less than $5 per acre. It was be- 

 cause there was a statesman at the head 

 of affairs that it was done. He looked 

 ahead and had it done. The conse- 

 quence is that Minnesota now has a 

 school fund of $15,000,000 and which is 

 likely to be increased to $25,000,000. 

 What we need is a good, strong man in 

 the legislature who will make forestry a 

 specialty. We have friends in the legis- 

 lature. They added twelve amendments 

 to our fire-warden law in our last legisla- 

 ture. They appropriated $20,000 to ex- 

 tend Itasca state park. They passed a 

 law authorizing the state forestry board 

 to buy land for forestry purposes at 

 $2.50 per acre, but they failed to appro- 

 priate the money. It was because there 

 was no man in the legislature to make 

 forestry a specialty, and until we have 

 such a man we will make no particular 

 progress in forestry in Minnesota. 



We have been discussing forestry for 

 many years in Minnesota. We have a 



forestry board which has been in opera- 

 tion five years. We have such men as 

 Frederick Weyerhaeuser, the greatest 

 lumberman in the country ; our friend 

 Mr. Owen; John Cooper, who was pres- 

 ident of the State Agricultural Society 

 and a lumberman; Professor Green, Dr. 

 A. C. Wedge, of Albert Lea, and others 

 in all nine members. We are equipped 

 to plant trees on non-agricultural land, 

 but the legislature has given us no 

 money for that purpose. 



Let us suppose you are members of the 

 finance committee or the committee on 

 appropriations in the legislature. You 

 are friendly to forestry, but here comes 

 the governor and prominent politicians 

 and say they must certainly have $100,- 

 ooo for the St. Louis Exposition. They 

 must have a lot of money for the state 

 university; they must build some more 

 buildings at the state experiment station; 

 they have four insane hospitals and many 

 other public institutions which must be 

 supported. Members from all parts of 

 the state are clamoring for money, and 

 they will have it ; and while they are 

 friendly to forestry, unless we have a 

 man who makes forestry a specialty and 

 fights for it with energy, we shall not 

 get money for forestry. 



Now, I trust that when you go home 

 and in due time come to elect senators 

 and representatives you will say to the 

 candidate, " My friend, promise me one 

 thing, that you will give earnest support 

 to forestry measures." 



What forestry means for Minnesota is 

 simply this : The remaining original 

 pine timber will be cut in the next fif- 

 teen years. Some second-growth pine, 

 if protected from fire, will then be cut 

 from year to year, but it will not be as 

 good as the original growth, and there 

 will not be enough of it for home con- 

 sumption. Lumber will be dearer and 

 our great lumber industry will decline. 

 There are, however, fully three million 

 acres of waste land in scattered locali- 

 ties which if planted with pine" would 

 in time become normal forests, yielding 

 forever a supply sufficient for our home 

 need. Such forests would by their 

 growth perpetually yield a net annual 

 revenue on the capital invested of 3 per 

 cent compound interest, besides many 



