MICHIGAN EXPERIMENT STATION 9 



day is coverea with a fine forest of young basswood, white ash and maple 

 and was recently sold at a good price to a Michigan manufacturing con- 

 cern. Had this tract been burned over repeatedly just as the seedlings 

 were in their young growth, we should now find the area covered with an 

 inferior growth of worthless stufE, if indeed there were humus enough to 

 support any vegetation at all. 



The 10 per cent of the timbered lands still remaining in the hands of 

 the commonwealth is subject to the same management as is the 90 per 

 cent in the hands of large owners. Most of these public lands are well 

 timbered and would have been purchased long ago except for the fact that 

 they are for the most part isolated and too far away from transportation 

 facilities to become of use to manufacturers. They are fast passing from 

 the control of the State, however, and it will not be many years before 

 Michigan as a state will have very little timber to dispose of. Much of 

 the timber belonging to the public is ripe and should be harvested. 



If there were some manner in which the public could authorize selected 

 agents to pick out and sell ofE this timber which is ready to cut, and 

 thereby retain the title in the state, we might consider the plan, but past 

 legislatures have not taken kindly to this idea and always look with sus- 

 picion upon any plan which has for its object the disposition of the timber 

 upon public lands, even though the trees are blown or burned down, and 

 fast spoiling in decay. This is to be regretted as a considerable income 

 might have been derived from a saving made along this line-^enough to 

 have paid competent wardens for looking after these tracts of woodland. 

 Until some such system of legislation can be had, the maintenance of the 

 present forest areas must be at a loss of much of the valuable timber now 

 standing, as the only method by which the value can be saved is by selling 

 to parties who will cut it. 



The maintenance of our present forests has two foes to combat, 

 viz: — timber thieves and forest fires, and destructive as the latter may 

 be and have been, they must bow in insignificance to the pirates who have 

 preyed upon the forests of Michigan ever since there was sale for any of 

 the products. It may seem a broad assertion, but it is a fact, that more 

 than double the amount of timber is stolen from State lands annually 

 than is destroyed by fire. The reason for this lies in the policy pursued 

 in the settlement of trespass committed by these vandals. The State has 

 a good law which should be enforced against this class of people, yet we 

 find that in the hundreds of cases of trespass upon publi.c lands none of 

 the trespassers have ever been prosecuted. Why is this? If one of these 

 people were to go upon the grounds of any of the State institutions and 

 cut down and take away a tree, or commit any other felony, he would be 

 at once punished as any thief should be. Yet the same person can tres- 

 pass upon the forest lands of the State and run no fear of prosecution 

 whatever. If caught, he will be called upon to pay the stumpage value, 

 which really means that he is buying timber and paying no taxes. One 

 reason why prosecutions have not been had, is the fact that the Attorneys 

 G-eneral who have held oflSce from time to time, hold that only the prose- 

 cuting attorneys of the county wherein the offence is committed, can com- 

 mence suit against trespassers upon public lands (yet we find the same 

 Attorneys General flying to the aid of the Game Warden whenever he has 

 occasion to request their services. We assume that it would be quite as 

 reasonable to protect the forests, which will surely become extinct under 

 the present system, as without the forests we can have no game). This 



