16 STATE OF MICHIGAN. 



OFFICIAL REPORT TO THE GOVERNOR. 



To His Excellency, Aaron T. Bliss, Governor of Michigan : 



Sir — We have the honor of submitting to yon, nnder Act No. 227 of the 

 Public Acts of 1899, approved June 7, 1899, the following report of the 

 Michigan Forestry Commission for the years 1903 and 1904. Under pro- 

 vision of the last section of the act, the commission is directed to make a 

 report to the Governor on or before the first day of December in each 

 year of such facts or statistics as it may deem of public interest or im- 

 portance; to recommend such legislation as the commission may desire 

 to see enacted in the interest of forest preservation and reforestation of 

 such areas in the State as seem best fitted for this purpose. 



The commision, interpreting this section of the law, recalls that the 

 sessions of our Legislature are biennial, and that any recommendation 

 concerning legislation cannot be acted upon except in. each alternate year, 

 and has thought it wise to make the reports for two years in one, to be 

 submitted to the Governor in the autumn preceding a session of the Legis- 

 lature. 



Under the direction of the act which provided for the appointment of 

 the Michigan Forestry Commission, the members thereof have been en- 

 gaged in acquiring and disseminating such information concerning for- 

 estry and forest products as would awaken in the people of the State an 

 interest in this great problem of statecraft. We have issued circulars 

 and bulletins ; we have prepared articles for the press ; we have made ad- 

 dresses at the gatherings and conventions of farmers and fruit-growers 

 and lumbermen; we have presented papers and addresses before conven- 

 tions of educators, ladies' literary clubs, boards of trade, manufacturers' 

 associations, and we have carried on a correspondence of large volume 

 for the purpose of disseminating the most modern and progressive views 

 concerning the importance of forestry, and its relation to the progress 

 of agriculture, and, in truth, civilization. 



We have gathered statistical matter bearing upon the uses of timber 

 products; the methods of growing them, and the commercial promise in 

 the growing of raw material to meet the wants of railroads, telephone and 

 telegraph companies, manufacturers, fuel consumers and those engaged 

 in mining. 



We have sought by every legitimate means to give exact and valuable 

 information concerning the proper care of the farm wood lot, the utiliza- 

 tion of thin, precipitous and waste areas of land and borders of streams 

 in the production, of a timber crop. "Wc have striven by every means 

 within our reach to enlist the symjjathy and co-operation"of individuals 



