Perpetuating the Lumber Business. 



E FOLLOWING vigorous language concerning 

 the duty that concerns us in Michigan of taking 

 care of our future lumber supply, is from the pen 

 of the accomplished editor of the "Lumberman," 

 Mr. J. E. Defebaugh : 

 "One of the most important questions that confronts Michi- 

 gan is as to the perpetuation of the lumber business. There 

 are a good many who will state with convincing emphasis that 

 the wealth to be derived from its hardwood forests will be 

 greater than that which was secured from pine. However that 

 may be and probably no absolute demonstration will ever be 

 possible certainly the prosperity of the State, the number of 

 men employed in its industries which are more or less depend- 

 ent upon lumber, and the wealth thus distributed would indi- 

 cate that at least to a large degree the passing of the pine has 

 been compensated for by the development of the hardwoods. 

 There still remain enormous hardwood resources. In fact, this 

 is one branch of the lumber business which will never entirely 

 pass away, inasmuch as practically every farm raises hardwood 

 trees. There are large sections where the hardwood forests 

 and those of cedar and other inferior growths are almost 

 untouched ; and yet if we look far ahead it is easy to conclude 

 that the permanent lumber business of Michigan will rest upon 

 the conifers rather than upon the deciduous forest growth. 



"This is so because the hardwood lands are largely of a 

 character that fits them for agriculture, and will eventually be 

 devoted to that 'use, while the pine lands to a considerable 

 extent are less desirable for that use, and so can more profit- 

 ably be put to forest growing than to agriculture. There are 

 large areas in both the southern and northern peninsulas of 

 the State which will grow trees better than anything else. 

 Thousands of square miles of this sort of land are practically 

 barren waste because the timber was cut off and fires passed 

 over the land, killing the seeds and the young growth, and 

 now there is nothing but desolation. Where conditions have 

 been favorable, new growth has started in, and students of the 

 subject as well as lumbermen have abandoned the theory that 

 white pine will not replace itself. 



"Nature is prodigal and careless in her methods. Valuable 

 timber is often replaced by that less valuable or almost worth- 

 less, and seems not to take the trouble to do any replanting at 

 all where conditions have been too adverse; but, assisted, she 

 will reclothe the forest lands of Michigan, as far as they are 

 not wanted for agriculture, with a growth of timber which, if 

 not as valuable as the original magnificent pines, maples or 

 oaks, will at least have some value and be a wonderful 

 resource in the years to come. There are some limited sec- 

 tions in which the soil will grow no tree of much value, but 

 there the jack pine and the black Norway, and perhaps the 

 cedar and birch, will flourish. What has grown on the land 

 once, will grow again. 



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