ation sometimes bore pretty heavily upon him because 

 he was getting no income from the property, but it 

 was growing into value satisfactorily, and if there 

 could be some modification of taxation upon forest 

 property which was maintained purely for forest pur- 

 poses with no income from it, so that men w T ould be 

 stimulated to retain larger areas for this purpose, he 

 felt that the State would be the gainer thereby. 



Mr. Chas. E. Bassett, Secretary of 

 Secy. the State Horticultural Society, spoke 



Bassett of the relationship of his Society to 



Approves progressive forestry, calling attention 



to the fact that the initial movement 

 in the agitation of the great question was made by the 

 State Horticultural Society, and that from the very 

 outset the Society had fostered the movement ; scarcely 

 a meeting was held without having a forestry feature 

 in its program. It maintained a permanent commit- 

 tee on forestry and regular reports w r ere made, and he 

 felt perfectly safe in saying that he came to this or- 

 ganization with the backing of all the membership of 

 the State Horticultural Society, and the new Associa- 

 tion would find in his Society a strong and active ally. 



Mr. Maurice Quinn, of Saginaw, having been called 

 out, responded with some stupendous figures covering 

 the output of lumbering for the State of Michigan. 

 He spoke particularly of the region tributary to Sagi- 

 naw and to Muskegon, and mentioned the area of pine 



in the State which had been the basis 

 Mr. Quinn of the great fortunes gathered, and 



Speaks of called particular attention to the im- 



Safeguards providence of the State, while it was 



providing for its schools by setting 

 aside a section to be sold for the endowment of a 

 common school system, that it didn't also set aside 640 

 acres in each geographical township as a permanent 

 forest preserve, the title to remain forever in the town- 

 ship. The State could well afford, even at this time, 

 by purchase, to do this in the interests of the long fu- 

 ture. He dwelt upon the devastation which had fol- 

 lowed the lumberman's axe, and spoke of the safe- 

 guards which the State ought to place about its hold- 

 ings, mentioning particularly how rapidly deforested 

 areas grow again into value if the fire and thieves are 

 kept out. 



The morning session was closed by a brief resume" of 

 letters received from prominent people in the State by 

 Prof. Roth people who could not be present and ex- 

 pressed their warm sympathy with the * movement 

 and a desire to be identified with the organization. 



Afternoon Session 



Just previous to convening in afternoon session, a 

 local photographer gathered the members of the Con- 

 vention together in front of Park Church, and again in 

 front of the Ryerson Library, and put into a perma- 

 nent picture the men and women who later in the Con- 

 vention organized the Michigan Forestry Association. 



The session was called to order by Mr. Hill, and 

 Acting Mayor, Mr. Elvin Swarthout delivered a very 



earnest and attractive address of wel- 

 Address come in which he expressed the large 



of interest of Grand Rapids in any plan 



Welcome which would further the progress of 



forestry in the State. We were going 

 further and further for the raw material to keep our 

 manufactures in operation, and a movement which 

 will create this raw material near at hand will be wel- 

 comed by our citizenship. Mr. Hill, in responding, 



