CARE OF THE MINNESOTA NATIONAL 



FOREST RESERVE 



BY 

 SAMUEL B. GREEN 



Professor of Forestry, University of Minnesota 



T HAVE recently returned from a 

 A short trip to the Minessota Na- 

 tional Forest Reserve, which I visited 

 for the special purpose of noting how 

 the Bureau of Forestry had managed 

 the selection of lands and the logging 

 operations there. I am much pleased 

 with the progress thus far made, and 

 believe that if the work is allowed to 

 proceed along the lines laid down in 

 the Morris law that the final results 

 will prove a wonderful demonstration 

 of the advantages of conservative 

 lumbering. 



There is a fine natural reproduction 

 on this forest reserve, the most of 

 which is under ten years old. The ab- 

 sence of anything older is probably 

 due to severe fires. At the Goss camp 

 about twelve million feet were cut last 

 winter and the tops had been burned 

 at the time of my visit. Five per cent 

 of the trees were left standing to seed 

 the land. These trees seem to be well 

 rooted and they have stood the severe 

 blows of this spring with very little 

 if any loss from blow-downs, al- 

 though high winds have accompanied 

 very heavy and long continued rains. 

 The tops were piled in good shape and 

 burned, leaving only some of the 

 larger top logs and heavy branches on 

 th > ground. Although the logging in- 

 jured many seedlings, yet in most 

 places where the land has been logged 

 there are a sufficient number coming 

 on to stock the land again in good 

 shape. The cost of burning the tops 

 has been from 10 to 15 cents per thou- 

 sand feet cut. 



This Reserve is situated in Northern 

 Minnesota, about midway between 

 Lake Superior and North Dakota. It 

 is a junction point of the transconti- 



nental system of the Great Northern 

 Railway, and its line from St. Paul. 



The Minnesota and International 

 Railway, which is controlled by the 

 Northern Pacific Railway, also enters 

 the Reserve. It is about five hours' 

 ride from Duluth and seven hours ride 

 from St. Paul and Minneapolis. 



This section of Minnesota is noted 

 for the salubrity of its climate. It is 

 here that the head waters of the Mis- 

 sissippi come together and from near 

 this point the water flows north into 

 Hudson's Bay, as well as through the 

 Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico. 

 It has been a noted hunting ground for 

 the Indians and the predecessors of 

 the Indians, have here built many 

 mounds. 



The land is generally sandy through- 

 out the larger part of the reservation 

 and under present conditions it is very 

 doubtful if there is any considerable 

 area that can be used profitably for 

 agriculture. Personally I have never 

 seen any profitable agriculture carried 

 on on similar land in Minnesota. The 

 claim that the sandy soil of this section 

 is peculiar in its power to produce 

 crops must be very much discounted. 

 This kind of land will produce crops 

 if it is handled with the greatest care, 

 but it must be heavily manured nearly 

 every year to get any kind of a crop on 

 it and even in the woods where the 

 soil is exposed there is little or no 

 growth of grass, pea vine or other 

 forage crop as is so common over 

 large areas of the better timber land of 

 Northern Minnesota. No better evi- 

 dence of the leachy character of the 

 soil could be given to those familiar 

 with such matters than a statement of 

 the simple fact that at the time of my 



