96 STATE OP MICHIGAN. 



provemeiit and to defray the taxes which the State pays to the town 

 where lands are reserved for forests. 



10. The State in selling any lands once deeded to the State, should 

 never give a quitclaim deed, but should ahvays give a warranty deed. 

 Cases are now on record where citizens of this State in good faith buy 

 the lands claimed to be the property of the State, and after purchasing 

 these lauds are obliged to allow other persons to cut off the timber or 

 endure other trespass. A deed from the State should be sufficient evi- 

 dence before any court to enjoin trespass of any kind. 



But why should the State do these things now? Why not wait and 

 let things develop? The answer is largely given in the nature of the 

 case as here presented. The State is rapidly growing and with it, the 

 demand for timber. According to the best estimates we use each year 

 more than two thousand million feet of lumber and timber in our State. 

 If timber and lumber are high, the house is not built and the barn 

 "has to do ;" development in every direction is hampered and checked. 



But it takes 150 years to make white pine such as we have used 

 in the past and it takes 50 years to make oven fair pole timber fit for 

 ordinary market. It is hardly a matter in which it is wise "to hold 

 on and go slow and see how things turn out." The State is losing 

 hundreds of thousands every year now and will lose more in the future 

 on account of the absence of a satisfactory home supply of forest 

 material. Similarly it is easy to regulate the entire matter of State 

 lands or poor lands today. A reasonable price alone will do this to quite 

 an extent. If left undone and if the old policy of advertising our lands 

 as sheep range and the encouragement of land monopoly prevails, and 

 once these lands pass into the hands of the land shark and are hawked 

 out and colonized, the matter will be precisely where the older states 

 of our country and where the states of Europe have foundered. No 

 matter how universally this colonization may fail, no matter how 

 wretched and run down large areas of these lands may become, the ap- 

 plication of any remedy will meet with so many heads and so many and 

 such diversified interests, that it will be only by the sacrifices of 

 enormous sums and much time that Michigan of years to come, may 

 correct the evil which the mistakes of Michigan today will cause. 

 With a little conservative restraint, with a bit of good will and effort, 

 with some attention to the experience of older states and people, the 

 State of Michigan may, in a very short time, develop out of a blackened 

 waste, a property which to the State will mean millions every year and 

 which will mean even more to the people of the district in which it is 

 located. 



To leave millions of acres in a waste-land condition is a waste of 

 money which no state should be guilty of. But this waste can partly 

 be stopped at once and it should be. 



The State should go ahead with the good example. IMillions of acres 

 of private lands await the right care which can and will come, but can 

 come only when the State goes ahead and establishes a proper and 

 efficient system of protection and develops a just method of taxation 

 for these lands. 



Nor should it be forgotten that this matter is one of great magnitude. 

 The possibilities are great and it is doubtful if our State will have such 

 an opportunity again. 



