44 STATE OP MICHIGAN. 



Camp fires nnextinguislied, burning smudges, carelessly thrown cigar 

 stubs, are the cause of hundreds of forest fires each one preventable — un- 

 necessary — criminal, because the property of another is destroyed. 



All this in disobedience of present laws and until these laws are re- 

 ■spected the fire hazard is great and the cost of the fire patrol proportion- 

 al thereto. 



Rather than rely too strongly upon the enforcement of the laws we 

 must arouse in our people a sense of responsibility for their acts. For 

 reasons which go back into our early history forest ownership has never 

 had the general respect and sanctity that was accorded improved property. 

 A citizen Avho sitting on a jury would send a man to prison for burning 

 a .$200 building, lightly and without conscience fires and destroys |2,000 

 worth of standing timber. 



But when a state or individual is growing or virtually creating a forest, 

 the sentiment of exclusive ownership and right to protection is bound 

 sooner or later to be awakened, and the main obstacle to forest propa- 

 gation removed. 



Meantime, through the ever helpful press as our best ally, and the aid 

 of the many friends who are upholding our hands, let us shame those who 

 now despoil the State of her beauty and her wealth, and to those who are 

 shameless, we can only mete out the measure that the law provides. 



FORESTS CONSERVE WATER POWER. 



BY SECRETARY E. A. WIIJ)BY. 



There are few agricultural topics before the people of the United States 

 receiving more attention, at present, than forestry and irrigation. While 

 they take good care of the older subjects pertaining to agricudture, these 

 new topics engross a greater share of the legislators' time and attention 

 than any other. They are interwoven, and necessarily so, from natural 

 causes. 



With regions abounding in forests, irrigation attracts but little atten- 

 tion, but on the other hand, when the natural forests have been completely 

 removed, and no provision is made to maintain the water supply, in a 

 short space of time irrigation naturally comes to the front. 



Here in Michigan it will not receive the attention it must in the arid 

 regions of the West, but its companion, forestry, must receive greater at- 

 tention in the future, or many locations must necessarily suffer, and it is 

 the location of the forestry reser^'es, whether established by the State or 

 the individual, that must first engage the attention of those interested. 

 The individual must, to a great degree, plan and plant with a view to 

 direct pecuniary returns, and is necessarily confined in his choice of lo- 

 cation. 



Eut the State should take a larger view, and not be confined to any 

 particular class of lands or location, inasmuch as what is done should 

 result in benefiting all alike. 



The observer of natural conditions has not failed to notice the drying 

 np of small streams and springs, and the decrease in the flow of water 



