LOGGING PRACTICE IN THE LAKE STATES 25 
FIRST AID TO REFORESTATION 
Several roads are open to owners in the handling of their timber- 
lands: (1) To dispose of the cut-over land to settlers; (2) to abandon 
the land and allow it to revert for nonpayment of taxes, to the State 
as in Michigan, to the county as in Wisconsin, or to the delinquent- 
tax list as in Minnesota; or (3) to devote the cut-over land to grow- 
ing timber and to handle the remaining old timber in such a way as 
to leave the land in good productive condition. 
About a decade ago most of the timber owners thought that the 
first road was the best. The plan, however, did not work. The 
sandy pine lands proved unsuitable for agriculture, and even the 
better hardwood lands could find but few settlers. Wath the agri- 
cultural area shrinking, there is little opportunity for many years 
to come to dispose of the cut-over lands to settlers for agricultural 
use. This has been forcibly driven home to many land companies 
in the region within the last few years. Few, however, wish to 
abandon the land altogether. In a mineralized belt there is always 
a possibility that iron in paying quantities may be discovered in the 
land. Some owners still hope that one of these days a “ back-to-the- 
land ” movement may start again or some other land boom as, for 
instance, by recreation seekers. Although much of the logged-off 
land goes on the delinquent-tax list, a general disinclination is evident, 
at least on the part of the larger owners, to abandon the land alto- 
gether. The third expedient of keeping the land and encouraging 
timber growth on it begins, therefore, to appeal to many owners as a 
reasonable solution of their land problem. 
Even if the owner himself has no hope of utilizing the growth 
on the cut-over land, second growth in the Lake States, as already 
in the New England States, will have a sale value. Where bare 
land with no second growth on it has practically no market value 
for forest or recreation purposes, land covered with thrifty second 
growth has sufficient sale value to justify an expenditure for its 
protection. There is already a growing demand for second-growth 
jack pine if it can be fougd in sufficiently large and solid blocks. 
Timber owners and operators largely misapprehend what timber 
growing means. To very many, reforestation or timber growing 
means planting trees. Forest planting over large areas by private 
owners is the last resort and presupposes a degree of forest manage- 
ment which has not yet been attained. Intensive forest practice in 
the Lake States will not come overnight. As a general rule, it will 
be a gradual process; first, some simple and crude kind of forestry; 
and later, as the owners gain more confidence in the new enterprise, 
more intensive methods will come into use. 
The management of forest lands by private owners, even a simple 
kind of management, presupposes certain general conditions. The 
owner must be assured of tolerably good protection for his forest 
lands. He must have confidence that his investments in timber 
growing will not be impaired by unfair taxation. And he must 
have a certain accumulation of reliable facts regarding the possible 
yields from different kinds of forest land and the cost of forest 
