of the fiscal year 1918 the commission was expending $54,702 for all 

 purposes on the seven forest reserves. In the last two years the 

 opening of the Pigeon River Reserve has been the largest work. It 

 cost, before the war, $6,000 to open a state forest. Now it costs 

 $12,000 to $13,000. 



"Forestry is a financial undertaking, pure and simple. It's got 

 to be made to pay to succeed," State Forester Marcus Schaaf 

 remarked to the writer while he was wandering around the reserva- 

 tion. And^every minute of every day that one spends in watching 

 the operations of Michigan's forestry department he is reminded of 

 this point of view. 



KNOWS VALUE OF TREES. 



The forester looks upon his work as the labor of raising a crop of 

 commercial wood prdducts lumber, pulp wood, chemical wood, ties, 

 posts and poles, and all the rest. He knows the value of forest cover 

 to animal life, appreciates the sportsman's and the tourist's interests, 

 realizes the health and scenic value to a state's general population of 

 living woods in place of barren lands; but when he reckons costs and 

 places them alongside yields to decide whether he is making progress 

 or not, he reckons in board feet and cords. v 



He doesn't even reckon in what is of most importance to the citizen 

 wherever he lives. This is the value to the state of RE-ESTABLISH- 

 ING ON IDLE LANDS AN INDUSTRY THAT HAS BEEN 

 WIPED OUT, AND RE-ESTABLISHING IT IN PERPETUITY, 

 that dying towns may come back to life, populations that are drifting 

 away because employment is gone may find labor restored to them, 

 a whole country blighted made new again. 



Growing a forest is a long-time job, involving a large investment 

 at a low rate of interest from 2 to 3 per cent and it is up to the 

 forester to show that, aside from what may be called the general 

 benefits to society, he must show financial benefit to the investor first 

 of all. 



Whatever may have been accomplished to date in this state in 

 actual work, the state has a definite plan for the work, and it proves 

 up successfully on the basis of the forester's severe reckoning it must 

 be shown that it pays. 



Michigan's state forester has the problem of restocking what are 

 virtually denuded lands. It has been pointed out before that this 

 state-owned land, reverted to the state because of non-payment of 

 taxes, is naturally the poorest land anywhere in the area of bankrupt 

 acres. , 



"It is obvious that no receipts may be expected during the first 

 60 years," said Mr. Schaaf. 



He was still speaking of commercial timber. There are small 

 annual revenues all the time from sale of nursery product, sale of 

 second growth annually cut off in process of giving the most forward 

 growth its chance to develop, and there is destined to be a larger 

 revenue derivable from thinnings and forest scavenging as certain 

 industries develop and needs increase. Pulp and paper makers are 

 taking kinds of wood nowadays they snorted at a few years ago, and 

 there is the chemical wood industry using up small stuff from 

 hardwood forests and turning out charcoal, acetate of lime and wood 

 alcohol. Michigan leads all the states in this latter industry. But, says 

 the state forester 



