28 



MICHIGAN FORESTRY. 



over half of the area cultivated ; and even in France we find a remarkable per 

 cent of untilled lands, and in all these states, long and densely settled as they 

 are, the amount of actual waste land is surprising and has engaged the atten- 

 tention of statesmen and others for years. In our own country we have the 

 striking exam.ple of the New England states. Here several miUion acres of 

 land which were regarded as agricultural as long as the forest cover protected 

 the soil, were cleared and farmed and led into poverty thousands of families 

 who tried in vain to eke out a hvelihood on lands which should never have been 

 deprived of their cover. But other states have fared little better and today 

 the following figures from the census of 1900 clearly show the correctness of 

 the above statement. 



The per cent of improved land is as follows : 



state. 



All North Atlantic states together 



All South Atlantic states 



All forested states east of the Mississippi river 



Michigan 



Wisconsin 



Maine 



Massachusetts 



New York 



Pennsylvania 



Virginia 



37% 

 27% 

 36% 

 32% 

 32% 

 12% 

 23% 

 51% 

 45% 

 39% 



Remarks. 



Me.-Pa. 

 Del.-Fla. 



It should be said that in several of the old states like Pennsylvania, much of 

 the land now recorded as improved land hardly deserves this name and is cer- 

 tain to be abandoned and revert to woods sooner or later. 



But strikingljr as this truth comes out on closer inquiry, it seems very diffi- 

 cult for many to reahze. Thus a well meaning and very prominent citizen of 

 Wisconsin stated in a conversation that it was his belief that practically all 

 land in his state was agricultural land, and the same statement was- repeated 

 emphatically at a meeting of people interested in this subject. And yet every 

 one who has made inquiry and traveled that state has seen the farms in the 

 sands on both sides of the Wisconsin river, abandoned by the most frugal and 

 hardworking foreigners, after the most desperate struggles for existence, and 

 has seen the one crop, potato farming on these same sands hardly yielding a 

 livelihood to people whose existence might suit Russian or Turkish conditions, 

 but is entirely unworthy of an American, and one which is sure to colonize pov- 

 erty and work harm to any state in which it exists. 



2. That it is not good policy to colonize the poor man on the poor acre, but 

 that much colonization tends to pauperism and is a public injury. In this 

 matter the experience in our country is quite ample, but it has never been 

 carefully studied or gathered, and is as much masked bv the a-eneral welfare of 

 the land. A family from one of . > 



