APPENDIX. 145 



From the foregoing table we learn two very important facts. 



1. That even in the fertile and densely settled farm districts of our 

 State, just as in all older states and the states of Europe, the good 

 sense of the people realizes that not all land is plowland and that even 

 on the farm which migjht all be put into fields it pays better to keep at 

 least part of the land as woods. 



2. That in spite of many years of effort, in spite of the low prices at 

 which our denuded pinery lands have long been offered, their settlement 

 is slow and that it is useless to expect that the light sandj,y soils of the 

 Michigan pineries are going to settle up at once when many millions of 

 acres of equally good lands along the coast of the Atlantic from Jersey 

 to Texas, in a warmer climate, remain unsettled pine woods. 



There is no question but there are large areas of good agricultural 

 lands in every one of our counties and the State will continue to make 

 every reasonable effort to encourage the settlement of these agricultural 

 lands. But it is equally clear that no good can come from leaving 

 millions of acres in an unprotected wasteland condition, where they do 

 no good to town and county; bring no taxes, receive no care and merely 

 discourage settlement by their unsighth , blackened stump waste ap- 

 pearance. The blackened skeletons of the former forest have done more 

 to discourage the real settler than all other agencies combined. 



To avoid the enornrous waste due to leaving the millions of acres of 

 denuded forest lands in their present idle, non-productive condition, the 

 State of Michigan has inaugurated the policy of forest Reserves, and 

 the object of a Forest Reserve is to secure to these much abused lands : 

 Protection and Improvement. In spite of repeated fires, in spite of the 

 fact that after the very soil itself was ruined by this arch enemy of the 

 forest, nature renews her efforts and wherever seed trees exist, nearly 

 every year new generations of trees spring into existence as tiny sensi- 

 tive plants. Today millions of these trees are scattered, too thinly, to 

 be sure, over the vast cut and burned over pinery lands and if the fire 

 is prevented from destroying these trees they will in comparatively 

 short time grow into a material of which ^\•e need every year more and— 

 produce every year less. Even where man and fire have been too suc- 

 cssful and removed all forest cover, so that no seeds (save the light- 

 winged poplar and birch) are scattered over the lands, millions of scrub 

 oaks are springing up from sprouts, and will make at least fuel, posts 

 and other small size material if given reasonable protection. And it is 

 chiefly for the purpose of providing this protection that these Forest 

 Reserves were created and it is this protection which forms the fore- 

 most duty of every Forest Officer on the Reserve. 



Where the denudation has proceeded beyond the point where natural 

 restocking in reasonably time may be expected, the State proposes active 

 improvement of the forest cover by planting. In this way the object of 

 the reserve, protection and improvement of the forest cover, is to be ac- 

 complished. 



But while thus the protection and improvement of the forest cover is 

 the principal object of the Reserves, yet there are other important bene- 

 fits Avhich accrue from the creation of these reserves, especially to the 

 people of the towns and counties in which the reserves are located. 

 Generally, we may state them as follows : 

 19 



