1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



477 



though the whole reservation had been 

 spared from the axe, for it is these 

 lake shores, easily reached by launch 

 and canoe, that will be the future at- 

 traction, and not the more inaccessible 

 interior lands of the reserve. 



It is more difficult to show why the 

 retention of 225,000 acres of land for 

 a forest reserve is better for the public 

 than its opening for settlement, and 

 the justification of such a course is 

 based wholly on the character of the 

 land retained. It was on the assump- 

 tion that such a course was justified 

 that the reserve was created, for the 

 declared policy of federal forest re- 

 serves is to exclude or release all large 

 areas of truly agricultural lands and 

 open them to settlement. 



The character of the soil, then, is 

 of prime importance. Over such a 

 large tract this varies greatly, but 

 within the area of the lands already, 

 or to be selected for the reserve, it is 

 marked by comparative absence of 

 swamps, and fairly level surface. Its 

 suitability to farming then depends on 

 the soil itself and not on its topogra- 

 phy, drainage, or rock. A superficial 

 examination, aided by the persuasive 

 eloquence of some enthusiastic town- 

 site speculator, would possibly con- 

 vince one that all this land would 

 make good farms. But the govern- 

 ment is fortunately not compelled to 

 make up its mind on the basis of ar- 

 guments as shallow as is the layer of 

 dark soil overlying the deep sterile 

 sands of some of these lands. That 

 most of this land is sandy, not even 

 the townsite men deny. The question 

 is : how sandy, and what can be done 

 with such sand. The best answer to 

 the first question is the timber found 

 upon the land. Jack pine is at home 

 on the deepest, purest, and most sterile 

 type of sandv soils. The tree is ex- 

 tremely drought-resistant, and, while 

 it will come in on good soil, the old, 

 pure stands are seldom found except 

 in pure sand. Norway pine in pure 

 stands grows on soil nearly, if not 

 quite, as sandy as the Jack pine, and 

 is often found associated with it. But 



white pine is never found pure in old 

 stands on such sands. Its presence 

 indicates clay in the soil or subsoil, 

 and a greater capacity to hold mois- 

 ture. Hardwood land is beyond ques- 

 tion agricultural. Sandy soil with no 

 retentive subsoil, such as Jack and 

 Norway pine are found upon, is a 

 treacherous soil. It is a quick soil. The 

 open and loose character of the soil 

 allows decomposition to proceed rap- 

 idly. The surface, when wooded, 

 holds a slight accumulation of fertility 

 in the shape of humus from the decay 

 of pine needles and leaves. When the 

 land is broken, this humus for two or 

 three seasons holds moisture, and by 

 its decay liberates fertility for the 

 crops. This fertility is with equal 

 rapidity washed into the deep sandy 

 subsoil by the rains. Sandy soils re- 

 cently cleared of timber are often re- 

 markably fertile, for a while. But the 

 regions where such soils, after years 

 of labor have been put upon them, 

 have completely played out and been 

 abandoned, with their improvements, 

 are numerous in older communities. 

 Not 100 miles from St. Paul is a set- 

 tlement thirty years old. The dividing 

 line of prosperity among the farmers 

 follows the boundary of the hardwood 

 lands with significant precision. On 

 the one side are well cleared and high- 

 ly valued farms with substantial im- 

 provements. On the other, Jack pine 

 and a few small clearings. In the 

 hardwood, the original settlers are still 

 there or have sold at a high figure. In 

 the Jack pine, only one man is left of 

 the pioneers, and the others have to a 

 man, moved away, died or sold out. 

 leaving tumbledown homsteads and 

 fields where the sand blows and banks 

 up along the roads. The lone settler, 

 a man of foreign birth and great en- 

 ergy, has cleared a large farm, but so 

 fierce has been the struggle that after 

 twenty-five years he has not a dollar 

 ahead and his soil is almost completely 

 exhausted, while some of the children, 

 through the effects of worry and in- 

 sufficient food, are idiotic and have In 

 come county wards. In the face of 



