FORESTRY COMMISSION. 87 



the wretched stay, and every period of bad seasons drives them to 

 brigandage and beggary. 



3. That even in extremely fertile districts it is hardly wise or safe 

 for agriculture to dispense with forestry. The farmer of Indiana or 

 Southern ^Michigan holds on to his wood lot in spite of all the smart 

 calculation and advice which figures out for him that he can better 

 afford to buy coal, oil or gas than raise his timber and tells him to a 

 cent how much larger a per cent lie can make on hay crops than wood 

 crops. He knows that the wood crop is the only certain one of all 

 the crops he has and he also knows that it costs a great deal of cash 

 (a thing normally scarce on the farm), to buy coal and also that it is 

 of no small importance in his business that he should have a few pieces 

 of good hickory and oak seasoning in case an axle, a whiffletree, bolster 

 or tongue need replacing. Nor is this all, but the farmer of the Iowa 

 ]irairie who settles on twenty feet of solid fertility finds it a most ex- 

 cellent thing to supply himself with a small wood-lot and become in- 

 dependent of the coal and timber hawker. 



Considering now the conditions in Michigan, we have: A good 

 agricultural State -nith good climate and with nearly two and a half 

 millions of people near the great markets of the land, almost surrounded 

 by the greatest inland waters of the world, with numerous streams, 

 abundant water power and amply traversed in all directions by numer- 

 ous railways. Agriculture far more than supplies the needs of the 

 people and is now and probably always will be the greatest industry 

 of the State. The second greatest, the wood-working industry but a 

 few years ago found an ample supply of raw material and its output 

 went to the markets of the Atlantic and to the plains of the West as 

 far as the Gulf. This is changed, the lumber industry has largely gone 

 from the State, of the large capital invested in this industry in 1890, 

 only about half was still so invested in 1900, and instead of Michigan 

 being one of the greatest export states of lumber in the world, we are 

 today importing timber and lumber. The Seattle cedar, the California 

 redwood, the cypress from the Gulf, the pine from the Carolinas and 

 the South Atlantic are filling our lumberyards and our people are pay- 

 ing every year large sums of money for a necessity which our State 

 should never have to import, but should be able to export for centuries 

 to come. Our people, in paying this fine for short-sightedness and 

 careless misuse of the greatest natural resource found ready in the 

 State, are paying out not only for the material, but are also paying 

 for its shipment, partly at least, over the two great mountain systems 

 ■of the New World, and in all cases for long distant railway transporta- 

 tion, little coming less than one thousand miles, and a very large amount 

 over two thousand miles distance. 



The wood working industry of our towns, notably the manufacture 

 of furniture which has added so much to the building up of some of 

 ■our towns, finds no longer a home supply, but is going as far as Arkansas 

 and Tennessee for its raw material, and the enterprising manufacturer 

 is exposed to the severest competition and is in danger, at all times, 

 of being ruined by the competitor, who has located at the source of 

 these supplies. Such a condition is little calculated to encourage further 

 development in this direction and the outlook for this important branch 

 of enterprise is anything but encouraging. What a loss this is to the 



