Mr, Sherlai'd feavaj notice of ;che date he could come into 

 the Slate, arid the Cottimissioh arranged with Mr. F. E. Skeels 

 to be his guide and render every assistance possible in 

 making the most of his sojourn in the State. Some time was 

 spent in a hasty review of the situation, after which a party 

 was formed, consisting of Mr. Sherrard, Mr. Skeels, Secretary 

 Wildcy of the Commission, Prof. Chas. A. Davis of Ann Arbor, 

 and several other gentlemen including a newspaper corres- 

 pondent, to make a tour of the region in which this preserve 

 was located. The surveying party spent a number of days 

 and covered a wide range of territory about Houghton and 

 Higgins Jakes, and became quite familiar with the forest 

 conditions of the country. A full report of the trip will be 

 given in our final report to the next legislature. Suffice it 

 to say in this letter to you, that the party was impressed 

 from the outset with the fact that there was so small a 

 proportion of agricultural lands in this locality, and such a 

 vast area that had been swept over by forest fires from 

 time to time, presenting to them a disheartening situation. 

 However, the party found in many localities, in which recent 

 fires had not done their ugly work, a very good stand of young 

 and promising timber. They became satisfied that there were 

 great possibilities in this region if the seeds of proper timber 

 trees could only be scattered and given a chance to germinate 

 and grow. The kind of timber did not seem to vary with the 

 soil so much as with the accident of seeding. Wherever there 

 were seed trees of red oak there would be, for a considerable 



surrounding area, a fine growth of this timber coming on. 

 The same was true of the white oak and black oak, white 

 pine, Norway pine and jack pine. These features emphasized 

 in their minds the possibilities of the region for forestry 

 purposes. The measurements taken of some of the young 

 timber and computations concerning the time of the growth 

 were very encouraging. 



While upon the very poorest lands the outlook was not so 

 promising, yet upon many of the thinnest lands, where the 

 hand of man had assisted nature a little, there was a promise, 

 providing some method could be devised to protect from fire 

 at a minimum expense, that the State could secure within a 

 generation results that would warrant it in taking hold of 

 the problem of reforestation under a systematic and economical 

 method. 



As a result of this investigation, the Commission is more 

 strongly impressed than ever with the fact that this country 

 under consideration is not an agricultural region. There are 

 some good lands on which farming could be prosecuted suc- 

 cessfully, but these lands form but a small fraction of the 

 entire area ; and inasmuch as the State, in one way or another, 

 comes into possession of a very large proportion of these lands, 

 it would seem to be a matter of wisdom to investigate the 

 question of reforestation very thoroughly and determine as to 

 the expediency of utilizing these lands for the growing of 

 a permanent forest cover that shall remain forever as a forest 

 domain. 



