108 STATE OP MICHIGAN. 



port a larger and thriftier population, is really of the first importance, 

 there is a strong argument in favor of forestry in the growing scarcity 

 of timber and the great advance in price. This has reached a point 

 where the Pacific coast and our Southern states are already marketing 

 lumber in Michigan cities, without which many of our industries would 

 disappear, and this demand cannot fail to increase steadily in the years 

 to come. 



It is quite difficult to convince Americans of the utility of something 

 that will not pay. One bad effect of .the prevalence of the merely com- 

 mercial spirit is that it leads to the sacrifice of the limitless future to 

 the immediate present. Quick returns are expected. Forests are de- 

 stroyed in our time, as they have been in other countries for the sake 

 of the money they bring, which is soon spent, and both the money and 

 trees are gone, without any reference to their protective influence upon 

 crops or future value. It is unwise for a nation or a state to sacrifice 

 future welfare and prosperity for a few fleeting present dollars. Final- 

 ly, neither the prosperity nor the dollars save the land from impover- 

 ishment and the people from poverty. With the spread of information 

 on this subject, economic necessity will bring a change. Forestry Avill 

 become popular in Michigan when the men who own its farms and 

 those who are looking for safe investments that will bring reasonable 

 returns, and are willing to labor and to wait for results, are convinced 

 that reforestation will pay. Evidently, that time has come. In some 

 sections of the State, at least, where almost barren hill lands hare 

 ceased to pay for their cultivation, a proper direction of wisdom and 

 energy toward tree growing will bring good results on the capital in- 

 vested, and at the same time help to make the arable land more produc- 

 tive. ^Nature has no use for the speculator, as something for nothing is 

 not one of her lessons. 



The profitableness of tree planting can be demonstrated by experi- 

 ment, and the State should bear the expense of the test. The determi- 

 nation of the best varieties of timber trees for different soils, especially 

 for the denuded hills that are of slight, if any, value for cultivation or 

 pasture, cannot be worked out in a month or a year. It is a proper 

 subject for studj' and ex]ievimentation by the Agricultural College, the 

 State Univei'sity and a Forestry Commission. 



A beginning should be made. Land too poor for successful cultiva- 

 tion in farm crops, where grasses do not thrive for the pasturage of 

 stock, yet where moisture enough for trees is not lacking, should be re- 

 forested with such trees as will improve the conditions of the soil, in 

 order that agriculture may become more profitable on the arable acres 

 that nature has best adapted for an ever-increasing yield of food for 

 growing millions of population. 



The State has enacted laA\s for game and fish protection, not because 

 these were matters of so great importance as would be the policy of 

 saving and increasing the fertility of its arable land, but because sports- 

 men have taken an interest in these subjects, and, incidentally, the State 

 is benefited. Beyond question, the propagation of trees is of vastly 

 greater importance, and yet the damaging and dangerous results of 

 careless and heedless methods in dealing with our forests, as affecting 

 coming generations and the permanent welfare of the State, receive 

 scarcely anv attention. 



