FORESTRY COMMISSION. 77 



THE AESTHETIC VALUE OF WOODED AREAS IX :\[ICniGAN. 



BY OSSIAN 0. SIMONDS, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 



To appreciate, one lias but to compare the coast of Jlichigan, where 

 some forests have been left, with the barren looking shores of Spain or 

 Italy, or the beautiful country extending from Niles to Ypsilanti, with 

 the treeless region of Dakota. After riding through some of the barren 

 regions of the West, one becomes hungry for such forests as he can see 

 in Michigan. He wishes to look at the beeches, maples, lindens, oaks, 

 ashes, butternuts, black walnuts, hickories, cherries, redbuds, dog- 

 woods, larches, pines, hemlocks and cedars, with whicli those who live 

 in the Teninsnlar State are so familiar. It is not alone the climate 

 that causes tliousands of peopk^ each year, to seek :Michigan as a sum- 

 mer home. They value ihe beautiful trees, as well as the pure air and 

 agreeable temperature. ' 



In the older portion of Michigan the forests, wliich have been allowed 

 to remain, have become more beautiful during the last twenty or thirty 

 years because their borders have become clothed to the ground with 

 foliage. As one goes through the State, observing these forests, he sees, 

 as a background, the larger native trees, and against them shrubs and 

 trees of lower growth. Frequently there will be an oak forest, with 

 leaves of a rich dark green, against which may be se;'u a growth of 

 sassafras, hazel bushes, sumachs or elderberries. Again, one will be 

 delighted with a growth of beech trees, with low spreading branches, 

 and clean, strong-looking trunks. Or he will pass a stream, standing 

 beside which the white bark of the sycamoi'e will call his attention. 

 Early in the year he may exclaim with delight as he passes a large 

 group of wild crab-apples, a colony of thorn-apples, a border of Judas 

 trees, the snowlike flowers of the Junebei-ry, or a flowering dogwood in 

 full bloom. One can hardly fail to appreciate the beauty of the newly 

 budded oaks, with colors ranging from deep red to ^\hite. In autumn, 

 when passing through a maple grove, with its gorgeous coloring, one 

 instinctively uncovers his head, as he would in a cathedral. If one has 

 no book, and wishes to relieve a time of waiting, let him but think of 

 the brilliant October foliage he has seen in northern Michigan, of the 

 birches, with their white trunks and yellow leaves; of hillsides covered 

 with scarlet sumachs; of the oaks, with their rich rids and browns; of 

 the maples, with their well-known tints, and imagine these bright colors 

 as they would appear against the dark background of an evergreen 

 forest. 



It is not alone the eyes that are rested and delighted with the beauty 

 of our forests. Who does not remember the refreshing fragrance of 

 our pines, spruces, balsams, hemlocks and cedars? One often longs for 

 good, deep breaths from an evergreen forest as he would for a bite from 



