16 MICHIGAN FORESTRY. 



It is a mistaken policy on the part of the state to seek its development by 

 striving to have every acre of its land under cultivation for the production of 

 ordinary agricultural crops. An immense line of industries of vast impor- 

 tance to the state are supported by the productions of the forest. Individuals 

 will not undertake to grow forests, having in view the support of these in- 

 dustries. The state, because it goes on forever, can enter upon this project 

 with every promise of success in the interest of its larger development. My 

 contention then, is, that the state, in handling its vast area of lands, shall 

 attack the problem of the wisest method of handling them in a business way, 

 and that it shall recognize forestry as an intrinsic factor in its agriculture 

 and shall undertake to supplement the activities of the individual with a forest 

 policy that shall make the poorest and least valuable lands of great value in 

 promoting its future prosperity. 



To this end it is of the utmost importance that the state shall immed- 

 iately take hold of the training of experts in forestry in the same business-like 

 way it has under solution the problem of educating its husbandmen. In its 

 university and college instruction; in the development of its great common 

 school interests, the importance of this line of education should never be lost 

 to the sight. In the future economy of the state the tree will be as important 

 a factor as the grain or the fruit, and an educated husbandry which shall main- 

 tain the high character and standing of Michigan agriculture must include a 

 proper training of the forester. 



THE AESTHETIC VALUE OF WOODED AREAS IN MICHIGAN. 



BY OSSIAN C. SIMONDS, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 



To appreciate, one has but to compare the coast of Michigan, where some 

 forests have been left, with the barren looking shores of Spain or Italy, or the 

 beautiful country extending from Niles to Ypsilanti, with the treeless region of 

 Dakota. After riding through some of the barren regions of the west, one be- 

 comes hungry for such forests as he can see in Michigan. He wishes to look at 

 the beeches, maples, lindens/oaks, ashes, butternuts, black walnuts, hickories, 

 cherries, redbuds, dogwoods, larches, pines, hemlocks and cedars, with which 

 those who live in the peninsular state are so famihar. It is not alone the 

 climate that causes thousands of people, each year, to seek Michigan as a sum- 

 mer home. They value the beautiful trees, as well as the pure air and agree- 

 able temperature. 



In the older portion of Michigan the foiests, which have been allowed to re- 

 main, have become more beautiful during the last twenty or thirty years 

 because their borders have become clothed to the ground with foliage. As 

 one goes through the state, observing these forests, he sees, as a background, 

 the larger native trees, and against them shrubs and trees of a lower growth. 

 Frequently there will be an oak forest, with leaves of a rich dark green, against 

 which may be seen a growth of sassafras, hazel bushes, sumachs|or 

 elderberries. Again, one will be delighted with a growth of beech trees, with 

 low spreading branches, and clean, strong-looking trunks. Or he will pass a 

 stream, standing beside which the white bark of the sycamore will call his 

 attention. Early in the year he may exclaim with delight as he passes a large 

 group of wild crab-apples, a colony of thorn-apples, a border of Judas trees, 



