FOREST PROBLEMS OF MICHIGAN. 



EXTRACTS FROM A PAPER READ BEFORE 

 THE MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



BY 



JOHN H. BISSEIX. 



SURELY it is a matter of the most 

 serious concern whether the coun- 

 try's supply of timber is failing or not, 

 and whether anything can be done by 

 the individual or the state to preserve 

 the present stocks, to replenish some of 

 the waste and depletion of the supplies, 

 or utilize again the waste places, where 

 once were forests, with the same most 

 valuable crop. 



The superficial area of the State of 

 Michigan, as given by the late Professor 

 Winchell, is 56,457 square miles, or in 

 acres that being the unit most com- 

 mon to the thought of business people 

 36,128,640 acres, besides 404,730 acres 

 of land on the islands belonging to the 

 state, located in the Great Lakes. To- 

 tal acreage, 36, 533,370. 



The number of small or inland lakes 

 is something over 5,000, having a total 

 acreage of 712,864. It may not be an 

 unreasonable guess to say that the area 

 covered by the cities, villages, high- 

 ways, railroads, and rivers of the state 

 occupy approximately 1,500,000 acres. 

 Taking this, with Professor Winchell' s 

 estimate of lake areas, from the total 

 acreage of the state, leaves 34,320,506 

 acres as the approximate area of the 

 state available for agricultural and for- 

 est purposes. 



The pine forests have been by far the 

 most valuable, but the whole state was 

 not covered with pine forests. There 

 are twenty-three counties of the state 

 where there was little or no pine. The 

 approximate acreage of these counties 

 having no pine of commercial value is 

 7,200,000, which, so far as pine is con- 

 cerned, reduces the area of the state to 

 27,120,000 acres. 



Of this 27, 1 20,000 acres, a portion has 

 been brought under cultivation as farms, 

 mainly, of course, on land formerly cov- 



ered by hard wood v but some of it lan< 

 which has grown pine. 



The greater part of the land whic] 

 was once so rich with its stand of th 

 finest white pine and Norway is no\ 

 waste, and much of it unfit for agricul 

 ture, and, so far as we can see now 

 never will be brought under cultivation 

 It is only fit for forest. Nature kne\ 

 that. But we were talking about acres 



Other parts of our 27,000,000 acre 

 were and much now is occupied by 

 stand of hardwood forest, and fror 

 18,000,000 to 20,000,000 acres of i 

 were pine. This you will see assume 

 that from 50 to 55 per cent of the acre 

 age of the entire state was originall 

 pine forest. I ask you to remembe 

 this approximate estimate of the pin 

 area when we come to speak of th 



money values. 



* * * ^ %. % ^ 



The early settlement of Michigan wa 

 along its southern border. The souther 

 counties of Michigan were originall 

 clothed with dense forests of oak, col 

 ton-wood, poplar, black walnut, cherry 

 bass-wood, maple, birch, sycamore, hick 

 ory, and elm, with occasional " oa' 

 openings." All statistics, so far as 

 have been able to find, show that th 

 products of the forest have been th 

 most important factor in building u 

 the industries and wealth of the state 

 and more wealth has been created fc 

 use in industrial development of a 

 kinds from the lumber industries tha 

 from any other. If this assertion is nc 

 true of all the states of the Union, i 

 certainly is of Michigan, Wisconsit 

 Minnesota, and some of the province 

 of Canada. 



T* <* 5|C *f 5|C 5|C 3fC 



The total production of pine which w 

 have outlined above is 161,475 million 



(280) 



