478 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



October 



this showing, this sand community is 

 now busily engaged in inducing a new 

 crop of settlers to buy these lands from 

 the speculators who secured them for 

 taxes or a song, from the first vic- 

 tims, that the process may be repeated. 

 It is claimed that these settlers were 

 incompetent farmers that what is 

 needed is clover and better rotations. 

 The only reason why they were poorer 

 farmers than those who succeeded on 

 the good soils, is that no sensible 

 and thinking farmer would ever settle 

 on such sandy soil. 



As to methods of farming, these are 

 soils too poor to farm continuously by 

 any scientific method. Clover will do 

 wonders in maintaining the fertil- 

 ity of sandy soils, but clover itself 

 will cease to do well after a few years. 

 Cropping, cultivating and stock rais- 

 ing on Jack pine sands, and the use 

 of manure, cannot be depended upon 

 to keep up the fertility of a soil requir- 

 ing fresh fertilization every year or 

 two, for one cannot raise enough stock 

 on a farm to manure it fully oftener 

 than once in five or six years, without 

 a large amount of extra pasture and 

 winter feed. Improved methods of 

 farming are admirable, but on the 

 poorest sands they will not solve the 

 problem. Such soils, where, as in this 

 case, the government has a clear title, 

 should be withheld from settlement to 

 prevent the evil and suffering inevi- 

 tably following an attempt to farm 

 them. That all of the land set aside 

 on the Chippewa Reservation for for- 

 est reserve is of this character, is not 

 true. But it is true, as anyone can 

 determine for himself, that a large 

 part of it is. Under the pressure of 

 necessity, in response to the general 

 demand that the selection be made, 

 and owing to the complications and 

 difficulties arising from the enormous 

 number of Indian allotments, and in 

 order to release as much land as pos- 

 sible from the operation of the restric- 

 tive reserve clauses, an area large 

 enough to contain the 225,000 acres 



of available land was designated, and 

 the rest of the reservation vacated per- 

 manently. 



If it had been possible to wait until 

 the host of other claims, including al- 

 lotments, flowage rights, and state 

 swamp land selections, had been set- 

 tled, the 225,000 acres whose selection 

 was made mandatory by the Morris 

 law, might have been made in a way 

 to exclude all but the sandiest lands. 

 But as these titles are not yet settled, 

 such a policy would have prevented 

 both lumbering and settlement up to 

 the present day. As it is, the area 

 selected contains more sandy land than 

 any other equal solid area in the reser- 

 vation. No objection was officially 

 made to this selection until after the 

 entire area remaining had been dis- 

 posed of, either to lumbermen who 

 will cut the timber clean leaving no 

 seed trees, or thrown open for entry, 

 to settlers. This soil is naturally 

 adapted to Jack and Norway pine and 

 the method of cutting by which 5 per 

 cent, of the mature timber is left to 

 seed the ground, is that best adapted 

 to the demands of the pines and will 

 be attended with great success, espe- 

 cially if public sentiment aids in the 

 prevention of fires. Much could be 

 written about the admirable work that 

 has already been done in carrying out 

 the regulations, which has dem >'i- 

 strated conclusively their practicabil- 

 ity. If the object of the reserve is at- 

 tained, Cass Lake will in time be the 

 center of a new pine forest of greater 

 value than the one now being cut. The 

 question of settling the better lands 

 within the reserve is one which need 

 concern no one honestly interested in 

 the protection of the bona fide settler. 

 The general policy of forest reserves, ap- 

 plied to this reserve, will take care of 

 that. But the government must set its 

 face firmly against a deliberate attempt 

 to deceive the public and misuse these 

 sandy lands by allowing well inten- 

 tioned settlers to fritter away the best 

 part of their lives in a hopeless effort 

 to make farms upon them. 





