TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. 79 



THE FUTURE OF WHITE PINE AND NORWAY PINE IN MICHIGAN. 



By W. J. Beal. 



With scarcely an exception, no attempt has been made during these 

 long years to save the young pines, which were started on the road to 

 produce future crops of timber. The debris was left, and when dry it 

 burned, destroying the young pines, and, in most cases, there were left 

 no mother trees scattered about the land to produce seeds, and if there 

 were such trees, the frequent fires spread over the land, destroying the 

 last vestige of pines. With a continuation of the practices now gen- 

 erally in vogue, white pine must cut a very small figure in the timber 

 supply of Michigan, unless artificial means are resorted to. After 

 burning, white pine doesn't sprout again and again from the roots after 

 the manner of oaks and red maples. 



A small number of old mother trees are occasionally met with, their 

 existence being due to the fact that they were never worth cutting for 

 lumber. Some of the young pines when only eight feet high, begin to 

 bear seeds. The dry pastured sand doesn't seem to be a favorite for 

 seedling pines. But few start under the bushes, yet, on the whole, I 

 think the pines would survive and continue to be more prominent, if 

 fire did not occasionally break out destroying many of them. While a 

 new crop of pines was slowly coming from seeds at disadvantage, the 

 oaks came more rapidly in the form of sprouts. 



FROM GRAND RAPIDS HERALD, JUNE 28, 1908. 



"A good many years ago," said Mr. Mershon, "fifteen or twenty of 

 us bought the Wingleton property, and about 1,700 acres of land west 

 of Ludington, where W. D. Wing had been conducting a lumber opera- 

 tion for years. We bought it for the trout streams. About all . the 

 timber that was worth anything at that time had been taken off; a 

 few young pines were growing around the little lakes and on the plains 

 so-called scrub oak or red oak was growing, but not of much size. 



"Had we at the time planted the land with Norway pine, the property 

 would have been worth |100,000 today, for the scrub oaks in the eighteen 

 or twenty years we have owned the property have become of good size, 

 big enough to make railroad ties, and the little pines that were around 

 the lakes have now become practically merchantable timber. When up 

 on the north branch last week fires were burning fiercely, and it was a 

 shame to see the destruction to young growth that was taking place. 

 White pine and Norway trees eight and ten feet high were being con- 

 sumed by the fires set by railroads, though they had escaped the fire for 

 years. This was on account of no protection or provision for protec- 

 tion being made by the State or private individuals." 



Mr. W. B. Mershon of Saginaw: In Clare county there is a lot of 

 white pine and Norway coming up that looks thrifty and a lot more that 



