A member of the Michigan Forestry 

 A Commission gathered this interesting 



Practical hit of information upon a visit to Rhode 



Example Island: 



The forest belonging to Mr. H. G. 

 Russell, of Providence, R. I., is situated at East Green- 

 wich and is in charge of James G. Mathewson, of East 

 Greenwich. Mr. Mathewson is a member of the board 

 of control of the Rhode Island Agricultural College. 

 Mr. Russell began these plantations in 1877. The 

 white pine is the leading species used, although there 

 are considerable areas given up to spruces, the larch, 

 the catalpa and locusts. Everywhere young oaks are 

 springing up throughout the plantation which is per- 

 haps three hundred acres in extent. These oaks are 

 from acorns which Mr. Russell has put in from time to 

 time, scattered through the forest area after the other 

 trees had attained some size. He is doing some thin- 

 ning now and the pines which have never been pruned 

 at all until last year have had all their 4ower branches 

 removed for about six feet or more from the surface of 

 the ground. He says that these limbs should have 

 been removed at a very much earlier period and then 

 there would have been a considerably larger propor- 

 tion of the body wood good enough for the better grades 

 of lumber. The pines are from a foot upward in di- 

 ameter and are thrifty and promising. It is Mr. 

 Russell's intention that eventually it shall be an oak 

 woods, relying on the oncoming young oak to occupy 

 the area, lumbering off the earlier timber. The soil 

 is very thin and poor over most of the area covered by 

 the forest, the forest having purposely been placed 

 upon this ground for a double purpose. One is to oc- 

 cupy a poor soil with some cover that would make it 

 seem more attractive; the other, for the purpose of 

 protecting the large area of the farm devoted to agri- 

 culture, which consists of a far better soil and needs 

 the protecting belt of timber on the coast side in order 

 to secure the best results in farming. 



. In an interview, Mr. C. K. Warren, 

 Importance of president of the Featherbone Corn- 

 Timber pany, Three Oaks, Mich., said: "After 

 giving mature consideration to the 

 value connected with various crops in our country I am 

 satisfied that the most important crop is the timber 

 crop. We have been so careless in our methods of 

 timber harvesting that we have been unmindful of the 

 future and we shall understand more and more the 

 enormous values connected with a crop of timber as 

 our supply is shortened. In looking to the future, I 

 know of no form of agriculture more promising than 

 that of growing timber. Wood, posts and ties are 

 commodities having a considerable value. They never 

 will be worth less, and you can bank on these values 

 in planning your dealings with the land. The utili- 

 zation of what have been called waste lands in the 

 production of timber is a very important agricultural 

 problem. I have a large orchard in Texas on what 

 has been denominated 'The Staked Plain' and I have 

 been impressed with the importance of raising fence 

 posts for that country, and my eyes have turned to- 

 ward the osage orange as a possible solution of the 

 question of posts and stakes in connection with cheap 

 fences upon our cattle ranges. I have also some ideas 

 with reference to the importance of planting timber 

 on the sand dunes of Western Michigan. The possi- 

 bilities are wonderful here for all forms of tree growth 

 are made rapidly and it will take but a short time under 

 a rational system to have a forest cover over what is 

 now a waste that is a menace to the agricultural lands 

 in the vicinity. I have been planting locusts and I 

 see no reason why we should not raise basswood and 

 maple and whitewood and cherry, in truth, all of the 

 valuable timbers that are indigenous to our climate." 



