tioned an incident with regard to the prices of various 

 kinds of woods used in rebuilding his house which was 

 very pertinent to the subject of reforestation. The 

 large prices which were paid for the woods which were 

 selected to match those already used some years ago in 

 the original building, indicated how rapidly these pro- 

 ducts had disappeared in the market. One example 

 was that of black cherry, which was required to in- 

 crease the area of a bookcase, the contractor excusing 

 himself for using as good an imitation of birch as possi- 

 ble, on the ground that the cherry could not be had at 

 less than $160.00 per thousand. Forestry has de- 

 monstrated that these woods can be grown within a 

 man's lifetime, so as to produce lumber to take the 

 place of that which has been taken off, and the prices 

 ought to be attractive to the investor. 



Mr. Hill then called upon Mr. Hubbell, of Manistee, 

 who said that it is practically impossible to preserve 



and continue the present stand of vir- 

 Taxation gin timber of Michigan in the northern 



by Hubbell part of the State, at least, under our 



present system of taxation, and it is 

 clearly impossible for private enterprise to attempt a 

 second growth, if it is to be subject to the same condi- 

 tions. It is charged that the high assessed value of 

 timber has been brought about by the special tax com- 

 mission. That is not so. The high value of timber 

 was installed many years ago by the local assessor in 

 the northern part of our State. It has been a practice 

 for years to put a high valuation upon timbered lands 

 belonging to lumbermen and non-resident companies, 

 who were going to cut that timber and the counties and 

 the townships were going to lose it, and they must be 

 quick to get anything out of it. If you are going to 

 bring up the subject of taxation, bring it up for the 

 whole State, applicable to the lumberman and the 

 farmer and have it on the same basis. 



Mr. Hill then called upon Mr. Rose 

 Rose and asked him why it was the popula- 



Tells of tion in the northern part of the State 



State Lands objected to having the barren lands in 



that part put into forest cultivation. 

 Mr. Rose replied that there were a number of reasons 

 for the obstructions which were thrown in the way of 

 the Commission in its contention that a large part of 

 the northern part of the southern peninsula should be 

 permanently in forest. In the first place, there were 

 men who were making their living in connection with 

 handling this land. There were certain emoluments 

 associated with the keeping of lands upon the tax roll. 

 There was some misapprehension with regard to the 

 purposes of the Forestry Commission, and there cer- 

 tainly was one reason that had a fair basis of fact be- 

 hind it, and that was the objection made by local resi- 

 dents to having the State tax lands taken off from the 

 rolls permanently and with no possibility of securing 

 any help in connection with local taxation. A rem- 

 edy in this direction might possibly be instituted by 

 the State which would really quell all opposition based 

 upon good reason. At present there was a disposi- 

 tion on the part of the Auditor General to deed these 

 lands over to the State rapidly, and in his own mind 

 there was no question but a very large portion of them 

 should be in permanent forest growth, owned by the 

 State^ and the product to be sold as distinct from the 

 land. Mr. Rose emphasized the importance of pro- 

 tection from fire, saying that everything depended 

 upon this in connection with permanent State Forest 

 Reserves. He spoke of his own second growth that 

 he had taken care of for more than a quarter of a cen- 

 tury, and in which he had taken a deep interest, by 

 keeping out fires and refusing to pasture, so that the 

 renewal would be unhampered. The question of tax- 



