een 
irae 
258 “The Plains” of Michigan. (March, 
the Catalpa having made an average annual increase of an inch in 
diameter, trees twenty-five years from planting having attained a 
diameter of two feet. Still it is to be borne in mind that these are 
cases of exceptionally vigorous growth, and at the best, the plant- 
ing of trees must be considered a wise and liberal policy for the 
future, and not a source of immediate gain. 
The facts, then, appear to entirely justify the conclusion thatit 
is altogether practicable to rehabilitate the denuded pine regions 
of Michigan with valuable pine and other timber trees whenever 
the owners of the land, whether individuals, railroad companies 
or the State government, are ready to assume the responsibility 
and expense of the undertaking. 
It would seem that the initiative in this great enterprise should 
be taken by the State. The traditional and distinctive spirit of our 
National and State institutions favors such intelligent provision 
for the future, and the example of such a State, in taking timely 
measures to provide for the future timber supply and instituting 
suitable experiments for determining the problems of practical 
forestry that are so soon to be thrust upon us, is a matter of no 
small moment. The experience of European governments, though 
in many respects not applicable in our own country, has conclu- 
_ sively established the desirability and necessity of a right position 
on the part of the government relative to this importantinterest It 
is only through the decided and persistent intervention of the gor 
ernment of France that the fatal consequences of denuding 
her mountain regions have been in a measure averted, and 
practical operations of great magnitude and expense, which : 
it is perfectly understood will require scores of years © 
their accomplishment, have been undertaken for the Pu 
pose of reforesting the denuded regions referred to. In tE 
same country an extensive territory along the coast has bee? oota 
verted from drifting sands and unwholesome marshes into YA 
uable forests, from which the government derives a considerad® 
annual revenue, and a large population find their homes and nat 
of living at the mills and other industrial establishments that zi 
grown up there. Prussia is growing trees at a profit on exten 
areas of sandy soil, described as being quite as worthless as that 
of the pine barrens of Michigan, and the government of Norway, 
with its extensive forests, from which the countries of the wy 
World have so long drawn immense quantities of lumber, is al ; 
purchasing land for the purpose of growing timber. 
