During a recent discussion of the 



Growth of question of supplying the demands of 



Maples our small wood manufactures, Mr. 



Benjamin Wolf, a lumberman of Grand 

 Rapids, said: "I am impressed with the rapid growth 

 of young maples. In connection with our Cadillac 

 factory we desire raw material in the form of second 

 growth maple, and I made many inquiries as to where 

 we could get what we wanted. A friend called my at- 

 tention to the fact that upon the lands in Montcalm 

 county, from which we stripped the pine some years 

 ago, there had been a rapid growth of maple, and I 

 went over these lands and found in the last twenty 

 years there had developed a crop which today is as 

 valuable as the original one. I am impressed with the 

 importance of thinking more about the succeeding 

 crop when we cut off the timber in lumbering and the 

 adoption of methods that will comport with rational 

 forestry, which shall take the place of our careless 

 methods of slaughter." 



Mr. Voorhees, of Oakland county, 

 Fuel at the Farmers' Institute at Grand 



Easily Rapids, gave an illustration of the 



Grown value of the white willow for fuel. He 



said that on one farm sixty rods of 

 hedge was planted, with the idea of using it for fencing 

 as a hedge. This was a good deal of a failure but in- 

 cidentally the row of willows became of value to the 

 farm first as a protecting barrier from the prevailing 

 west winds, and second as a source of fuel for the home- 

 stead. By gradually cutting off this row of willows 

 and allowing the sprouts to grow, renewing the hedge 

 .sufficiently, fuel has been continuously obtained to 

 .satisfy the wants of the home. 



Mr. A. S. Cramer, of Coopersville, 

 Two suggests that the pathmasters' war- 



Forestry rant shall contain a clause embody- 



Notes ing the requirements of the law which 



protects trees planted or preserved 

 along the highways ; also that the State in deeding de- 

 linquent tax lands to homesteaders make some re- 

 quirements concerning the planting and maintaining 

 of a certain per cent, say 5 or 10 per cent of the area 

 .in permanent forest. 



James R. Wylie remarked in connection with the 

 recent Forestry Convention: "We have authority 

 enough under our constitution to prevent this great 

 waste in timber. But authority means nothing with- 

 out public opininon to enforce it. The whole State 

 should be aroused on this most important question of 

 "being saved from ourselves in this forest problem. 

 The man who is careless with fire must be shown that 

 he borders on criminality." 



The Hon. Henry Chamberlain, a 

 A Practical leading public-spirited citizen of our 



Thought State, in a letter to the president of 



the Michigan Forestry Commission, 

 introduced the following suggestive word: "I am of 

 the conviction that timber growing can be made profit- 

 able, but good sense must be put into this as into any 

 other agricultural product. I have been led to criti- 

 cise the advice given by some thoughtless people con- 

 cerning the growth of black walnut. I have cut down 

 black walnuts sixty years old, that were simply white 

 walnut because the colored pigments had not been 

 developed and so the timber was no more valuable than 

 any other ordinary varieties. On the other hand, 

 cherry gets its special value as connected with its color, 

 in the early days of its growth, and is a more promising 

 species to use for timber purposes. The white pine 

 grows very luxuriantly in Western Michigan. I know 

 of specimens fifty or sixty years old that are three feet 



