104 STATE OP MICHIGAN. 



State it will pay any farmer to consider this well before he expends 

 much money in posts that are not permanent. 



The willow on moist ground is easily propagated. It can be done 

 by putting any sized sprout or stick into the ground where you want 

 a tree or in the nursery row to be rooted and grown for transplanting 

 on high, dry ground. 



When wanted for shade the willow forms a nice bushy top, and 

 grows very fast, the only objection is that after the tree gets some size 

 the wind will break off some small limbs. 



In conclusion we would say to every land owner, stop and consider 

 this subject of forestry and after looking it up, you will certainly have 

 to admit that you have a duty to perform in perpetuating the forests, 

 not only for the convenience but to the profit of the coming generations. 

 And to go a little further and look at this subject from a little different 

 standpoint, we can readily see that we are only stewards of "Old Mother 

 Earth," and if we are faithful in our trust we will deliver to our suc- 

 cessors a legacy that will bring comfort to the millions that are to 

 follow. 



A RATIONAL VIEW OP EEFORESTATION FOR ]\nCHIGAN. 



BY HON. B. W. BAKBER, JACKSON, 5IICH. 



Aside from the increasing money value of forest trees, which supply 

 material for shelter, fuel, railway transportation, shipbuilding, tele- 

 graph and telephone service, furniture, implements of all kinds, and the 

 varied utilities of civilized life — the mere economic value of timber — ■ 

 the protection that Avooded areas afford to the arable lands of the State, 

 rendering them more productive and the crops more certain, is a matter of 

 the highest importance. 



Human sustenance comes almost entirely from the soil. The wealth, 

 the prosperity, the support, at a vigorous standard of living, of a large 

 and thrifty population, instead of an impoverished and discouraged class 

 striving for a poor living on unproductive land, depend largely upon the 

 preservation and restoration of conditions Avhich promote an increased 

 supply of food, fuel and shelter to meet the requirements of a larger 

 number of inhabitants. 



The incidental advantages that would follow the protection of the 

 tirable lands of Michigan from being wind-swept and from the winter- 

 killing of wheat and clover, as was the case last winter, involving the loss 

 of labor, seed and millions of dollars by the farmers of the State, and in 

 the protection of the streams from destructive freshet-s in the spring and 

 from equally ruinous drouths in the summer, would be of permanent and 

 incalculable value. 



Michigan, when it had more forests and their protective influence, was 

 a great Avheat State. The crop was reliable and profitable. From the 

 maximum of a comparatively few years ago the total vield has shrunk 

 fully three-fourths, or from 35,000,000 to 8,000,000 bushels, and even less 

 Personal observation in Jackson county, and the same is true of other 



