There is a growing conviction among the people who have 

 been most thoughtful about the future of our State, that the 

 method which has been pursued of inducing people to go on 

 poor lands simply because they are cheap, is a mistaken one 

 as a matter of State policy, and an injustice to immigrants. 

 A wiser plan would be for the State to cover the thin lands 

 with a forest growth that shall be of permanent benefit to 

 contiguous agricultural lands, and aid in every way the farmer 

 to a more intensive method of farming the better lands. 



In the course of another year the Commission will probably 

 be able to obtain a wider array of facts and figures to establish 

 its contention that this is the locality for a large and permanent 

 State forestry preserve. In connection with this main idea, 

 the Commission has had called to its attention in various ways 

 the desirability of utilizing the same region as a game pre- 

 serve, for the purpose of perpetuating within our borders the 

 more useful of our animals which made their home in our 

 peninsula under the primitive conditions of our State. 



The Commission is glad to announce to you that in the 

 annual report of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, the government forester, 

 we have the promise of continued help from his bureau in the 

 investigation which was so satisfactorily inaugurated during 

 the past year. As a result of this valuable assistance, we hope 

 to give to the next legislature very clearly-defined ideas with 

 regard to the future management of a considerable portion of 

 the lands which have reverted to the State as a result of 

 delinquency in the payment of taxes. 



During this year the Commission expects to put in proper 

 shape its recommendation with reference to solidifying a per- 

 manent forestry reserve in the region which we have been 

 investigating, by placing in it all lands owned by the State that 

 are contiguous to the ones already turned over to the 

 Commission, and by securing original deeds from a large 

 number of parties who may have some claims upon this land, 

 that has come into the possession of the State as a result of 

 a delinquency in the payment of taxes. 



Aside from the study of the matter of a permanent forestry 

 preserve, as indicated above, the Commission made, at differ- 

 ent times, a showing of the importance of the great forestry 

 problem as connected with the leading educational institutions 

 of the State, urging the duty of the University and Agri- 

 cultural College to take up the problem. As a result of impor- 

 tunity and a responsive audience on the part of the Regents of 

 the University and the Board of Agriculture, a department 

 of forestry has been organized in the State University, and an 

 assistant professorship provided for in its faculty. Prof. 

 Charles A. Davis has been appointed to fill this chair, .and is 

 already working in harmony with the Commission. The State 

 Board of Agriculture has also established a similar depart- 

 ment in the Michigan Agricultural College, and has set aside 

 3,000 acres of fine hardwood land as a laboratory for technical 

 forestry study in connection with the scheme of education 

 which shall be arranged. The Department of Public Instruc- 

 tion has also taken up the work at the suggestion of the For- 



