A Railroad Man's View. 



HE FOLLOWING letter was received by the Presi- 

 dent of the Commission from W. R. Shelby, vice 

 president of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railway 

 Company : 



"My attention has been called to the up-hill 

 work of your Commission in awakening public sentiment and 

 arousing the people of Michigan to the necessity of protecting 

 the comparatively little remaining timber and replacing her 

 forests. 



"It should be the duty of every citizen to aid this work in 

 every way possible. Michigan being so blessed formerly by its 

 vast forest wealth makes it difficult perhaps for the average 

 citizen to realize the changed condition from the dense forests 

 of a few years ago to an actual scarcity of suitable building 

 material and forest products generally which exists now. 

 With the continued wholesale and wasteful destruction going 

 on, with no organized effort at reproduction, what must be 

 expected in a few years more? Our white pine, hemlock, spruce 



and cedar forests are a thing of the past, and the remaining 

 scattered bodies of hardwood, now reached only by branch 

 lines and spur tracks from railroads, are rapidly disappearing. 

 To enforce this statement I may add that the tonnage reports 

 of one railroad line for the twenty years from 1881 to 1901 show 

 that it moved forest products of 14,571,000 tons, an average 

 of 728,550 tons each year. Multiplying this by the forest 

 products moved by all the railroads of the State, and then add 

 millions more floated out by streams and rivers, will show 

 why the scarcity exists. 



"And what has the State to show for this vast wealth of 

 which it has been so quickly deprived? The railroads of 

 Michigan are now obliged to look elsewhere for their ties and 

 lumber supplies. Compare the prices of today for building 

 material for the cities and towns of Michigan, and the cost 

 to the farmers of the State for building material, fencing, and 

 even for firewood, with the prices of a short time since. These 

 and other facts which might be presented did time permit will 

 show the positive need in the near future and the great 

 importance of a united effort to encourage tree-planting, pro- 

 tecting the remaining timber and the reforestation of our 

 State." 



37 



