1906 FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 537 



of lumber, exclusive of railway ties, In other words, the state pays out year 

 poles and the like. In New England, after year, in many cases, $1.20 for 

 with soil similar to much of ours, of looking after what is from one to 

 all land cleared up to 1880 40 per cent eleven cents worth of land. Such is 

 had been abandoned to the forest be- the working of. the present land law. 

 fore 1900. For the same reason this "A state forest reserve of ten mil- 

 thing is going on in Michigan. Farm- lion acres could be formed with advan- 

 ers have found by experiment that tim- tage to every citizen. It would in time 

 ber is the only profitable crop that can give employment to hundreds of small 

 be grown there. saw mills. Had this been done twen- 



"There are nearly 4,000,000 acres of ty-five years ago we would now be get- 

 unimproved land in the settled portion ting a handsome revenue from what is 

 of lower Michigan. Of the northern now useless and a great expense. The 

 peninsula only 5 per cent is cultivated, state forest of Ontario is now paying 

 Twenty million acres of the state are all the Province's expenses. Inside of 

 woods or waste lands. When it is real- fifteen years a forest reserve can be 

 ized that lumber is being brought into made self-supporting. Inside of twen- 

 the state now from the Pacific coast ty-five years it is profitable, 

 at a cost for freight per car of $250, "The state land laws should at once 

 and that supplies are also brought from be amended to prevent the sale of any 

 the South, the importance of utilizing state lands at less than a designated 

 the waste land is evident. price per acre. At present they may 



"When farmers sell a farm in Mich- be sold by state officials at any price, 



igan they throw in the wood lot the The state should be required to make 



most valuable part of the farm. The a survey of the material on the land 



state has not properly protected lum- before this price is fixed. At present 



bermen in either life or property in the the state never knows what it sells, 



forests. I see no way to stop their Reform of the state land laws is im- 



slaughter of the forests they own, but peratively necessary. Let us work for 



the state can do much on its own lands, corrective legislation at the state capi- 



"Michigan now owns outright from tol this winter." 

 600,000 to 1,000,000 acres of waste 



land. It is practically owner of all A. B. Gahan, assistant 



delinquent tax lands, which constitute with p i es state entomologist of 



about one-quarter of the state area. Maryland, was recently 



Most of the delinquent tax lands, un- called to Annapolis to investigate in- 



der the wretched system now in force, sect damage to chestnut telephone 



are sold from five to six times in a poles, set 5 to 7 years. At the point of 



quarter-century. The wood is cut off, contact with the ground the honey- 



the taxes lapse again, and the state is combing of the outer portion by 



the poorer by the process. worms, followed or preceded by rot, 



"In the ten years ended in 1905 the had rendered the pole unsafe for fur- 

 state spent $1,500,000 trying to get rid ther service. The worm is bluish-white 

 of these waste lands, as the auditor in color and from an inch to an inch and 

 general's report shows. In one year a quarter long, and the borings are 

 the state paid out $65,000 for useless about one-sixteenth of an inch in di- 

 advertisements. Land may now be ameter. The poles had been treated, 

 bought for ten cents an acre. Divided 

 ten lots to the acre it is sold to city T .. Organization of the edu- 



In N ortlicrn 



buyers, who, when they find out its N 0rt h Dakota ca tional work at Botti- 

 character, let their rights lapse. These neau, N. Dak., has re- 

 lots must then be advertised year after cently been effected, under the law 

 year. Each advertisement costs the passed a few years ago providing for 

 state forty cents. Clerk hire for look- a state school of forestry (pp. 242, 

 ing after each lot costs eighty cents. 243, "Federal and State Forest Laws.") 



