APPENDIX. 143 



GENERAL. 



Twenty j-ears ago, a mere day in the life of a State or people, Mich- 

 igan cut in one year, over 3,600 million feet of White Pine lumber 

 alone and the forests of our State supplied the people of our country 

 clear to Texas, with this choice material, and at the same time called 

 into existence the great wood working industries which have built up 

 our towns and our railways. Our forests supplied our people with an 

 abundance of excellent timber at reasonable prices; our people could 

 afford to build and they did build, and our many towns and farmsteads 

 today testify to the great value of our former forests. 



Todaj- the State of Michigan imports lumber; the lumberyard of near- 

 ly every town in the State carries Yellow I'ine and Cypress from the 

 South and shingles and other materials from the Pacific coast. The 

 consumers of this material, our farmer and townsman, pay not only a 

 large price for the material, but, in order to haul this material from 

 1,000-2,500 miles, part of it over the greatest mountain systems of our 

 land, they pay an additional sum for transportation, often greater than 

 the value of ordinary lumber alone. And all this great waste of money 

 on the part of our people without any good cause, for ]\lichigan has 

 lands in plenty where a good forest growth Avould sui)ply its people 

 with all it needs and more beside, if only fire and vandal were restricted 

 and thus nature assisted instead of opposed by man. 



The bad effects of this condition of affairs are noticed by all close 

 observers. The much needed barn is not built and the farm suffers 

 ''because lumber is too hig|h;" the worker of the town feels that he 

 must crowd into flats and rent houses, because cheap lumber no longer 

 invites him to build a comfortable home of his own. Nor arei these the 

 only bad effects of forest destruction. The lumber industry in Michigan 

 . I'epresented 129 million dollars in 1890; it only employed C7 million 

 dollars in 1900, so that about half the capital of this industry left the 

 State during these ten years. 



Similarly the gi'eat wood working industries of our State have ceased 

 to find a sufficient home supply of timbei". The Oak which goes into 

 the beautiful and well known product of our furniture factory comes 

 from Arkansas, Tennessee and other distant districts. The enterpr'ising 

 manufacturer is threatened with ruinous competition through men es- 

 tablished at these new centers of supply of the principal and bulky raw 

 material of their industry simply because the State of Michigan has 

 failed to look ahead, has failed to husband Avhat it had, failed to protect 

 the forest against useless destruction. 



Michigan has an abundance of forest lands, but the forests have largely 

 disappeared, and what was once stately forest is now stump waste. 



The following table fully illustrates some of the above facts in pre- 

 senting the condition of agricultural settlement in our State : 



