forest and forest trees, were submitted with the re- 

 port of 1904, now published in the report of the Corn- 

 mission, so that a brief resume must suffice in this 

 connection. 



The Michigan Forest Reserves are located in Ros- 

 common and Crawford counties. District No. i f 

 about the north end of Higgins' Lake, lies half in Craw- 

 ford and half in Roscommon, bordering on the west on 

 Kalkaska and Missaukee counties ; while District No. 

 2, south of Houghton Lake, forms the southwest cor- 

 ner of Roscommon county, bordering on Clare and 

 Missaukee counties. The Reserves form a large ex- 

 panse of sandy pinery lands, once heavily forested, 

 but now practically all denuded and largely "stump 

 prairies" or "plains" and rather slow to settle as 

 would appear from the following figures taken from 

 the Census of 1900 and the report of the Auditor Gen- 

 eral for 1903, and the report of the State Tax Com- 

 mission for 1903-4. 



The Reserves are part of a large plain forming the 

 divide between the drainage basin of the Muskegon 

 and Manistee rivers on the one hand and the Au Sable 

 and Tittabawassee on the other. Practically all of 

 the Reserve lands are drained by the Muskegon river 

 and hold considerable part of the headwaters of this 

 important stream, a fact which alone justifies their 

 setting aside as forest lands. 



Throughout, but more especially in District No. 2, 

 located south of Houghton Lake, the county is dotted 

 by swamps which occupy from 8 per cent to 30 per 

 cent of the area. 



The entire area was once a magnificent forest of 

 white pine and Norway pine, with the swamps stocked 

 with tamarack, cedar and spruce. None of the land 

 was real hardwood forest such as occurs throughout 

 this region on all heavier lands. Today this district is 

 estimated to have scarcely 10 per cent of forest, so 

 that we have here a large area in which over 90 per 

 cent of the land is still wild, unsettled land, and about 

 98 per cent unimproved and still supplied with less 

 real forest than some of pur most densely settled 

 counties in the southern part of the State. 



More precisely, the Reserve lands are "all of the 

 State lands " located in Town 21 N. Range 3 and 4 W. ; 

 and the N. 1-2 of Town 24, N. Range 4 W. ; and the 

 S 1-2 of Town 25 N. Range 4 W.; thus all of the 

 State lands in an area equal to three surveyed town- 

 ships. Since considerable areas have been "deeded to 

 the State since the last report, the area now actually 

 Reserve lands is about 39,000 acres, of which about 

 9,800 acres are located in District No. i ; and 29,200 

 acres in District No. 2. The Reserve lands are not in 

 solid bodies but more or less interrupted by private 

 holdings and form about 60 per cent of all lands within 

 the limits of the Reserves. This relation is nearly as, 

 reported before, or: 



InT 2i-R 4 75% 



T 2 i-R 3 57% 



T*5-R4 27% 



T i'4-R 4 17% 



