BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. 



BY B. W. BARBER, JACKSON, MICH. 



After an agitation and discussion that lias lasted something over a quarter 

 of a century, the organization of a Michigan Forestry Association seems 

 like the beginning of the end. Reading history and the study of economic 

 questions lead me to believe that saving the forest cover of at least one- 

 third of the area of all the counties in Southern Michigan was essential to 

 the present and future welfare of the best agricultural portion of our state. 

 But reason and argument have had little or no weight. At last the for- 

 estry movement has received an impetus for an economic necessity. 

 Better late than never, of course, but it would have been much easier to have 

 saved a due proportion of our wooded area and made it of perma- 

 nent commercial value, than it is to restore the forests that are needed 

 to render the arable lands more productive and capable of sup- 

 porting the larger interests of a dwindling population. It was easier 

 to make the state than it will be to save it. It will be sixty-six 

 years in October since my father's family and I came to Michigan, and 

 during this average lifetime of two generations of humanity that the 

 state has been my home, nearly all of the land, as there were only 

 scattered settlements in the interior of the peninsula, has been denuded 

 of its magnificent forests. Many a single tree is now worth more in the 

 market than an acre of soil that might be tilled, but too many of the 

 acres were denuded. It is hoped that the educative efforts of the Michigan 

 Forestry Association will inspire our people to begin in every town to set 

 out forest trees upon lands that have already ceased to be valuable for cul- 

 tivation, and restore to the state something of its former sjdvan beauty 

 and splendor. There is no state which presents a more beautiful outlook 

 and invites intelligent effort with greater certainty of ample reward for forest 

 restoration, than does Michigan. Please have my name enrolled as a char- 

 ter member of the Michigan Forestry Association. All of the words in 

 favor of the forestry movement thus beginning have not been used up. 

 Michigan's greatest problem, organized effort alone can solve. 



THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE FOREST RESERVE.— FIRE. 



BY ARTHUR HILL, SAGINAW. 



Among the most vivid recollections of my early boj^hood are those of 

 certain days when the smoke from the burning forests about Saginaw was 

 so dense that children living in the outskirts lost their way in coming to 

 and going from school. We boys played hide-aiid-seek during school recess 

 and could stand in the open not more than sixty feet apart yet not be 

 recognizable. 



