The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-12-04
LET US RISE TO THE EMERGENCY

With few exceptions the press of
the state have encouraged the inter
ests of forestry, and am sure yours
pulses with heart for it. Allow me
then, please, chance to talk with
your appreciable readers in relation
to our great agricultural need that
| ever plies In with other business sue
cesses. In your region of the state
some native trees on the river bottoms
still remain, and new trees are allow
ed to spring up where fires and stock
are kept out, and your farmers there
took the forethought to plant trees on
their farms, SO your county is
comparatively well wooded. Am
not correct in this estimate of the sit
uation? More, than ever before your
farmers, l am told, are economizing
their forests. Allow me to ask, do
they save their valuable trees, the
blackwalnut and butternut? I fear
the best of them have been cut for
the market and little or no attention
has been paid to the planting of new
ones of that variety. This is serious
misfortune. What is wanted is every
part of Minnesota is to plant the most
valuable of such as will thrive in our
climate. And our OakS-are they pre-
served? and elms and naples? Such
are as easy to raise as some of the less
valuable, when properly managed.
What will satisfy for protection, shade
and beauty, and perpetuate the wood
manufacturing industry TO our sue
ceSsorS, should be the practical con-
Sideration OF every farmer and every
lover of trees. Lumber we must have,
and there is no other alternative left
us but to ecOnomiZe in our native
woods and grow it where we can and
is most needed.
What a careless cut and slash in our
Big woods!" No regard has been
given to judiciOuS thinning out and
the preservation of new growth of
like valuable timber, The unpardon-
able indifference of white and red
hunters in setting fires have nearly
ruined these once majestic woods.
The consequences of such vandalism
we are now realizing in the form of
dried up lakes and fast drying up
rivers all oyer the state.
The unwisely welded ak and merci-
less fires have ripped up the forest
roof and burned out the forest floor,
destroying economic forest conditions,
and now Weare realizing losses in our
water flow with the fearful prospect
just ahead, of the total extinction Of
our once beautiful and refreshing
lakes and rivers. Can we afford such
a catastrophe? Our Minnesota river is
receding with the rest. To what
cause is this rapid diminution trace
able? We have not built up and
saved forests in quantity and dense
| ness sufficient to compensate for the
drainage upon moisture by the Gull
ture of our food plants. We have
not provided for water economy
fast as the pillow ripped up the shield
! to the capillaries in the ground. We
have not guarded our necessities by
| foresting on a scale commensurate
with our civilized needs. While forest
ry on the open prairies has generally
been neglected, the big woods in
which centered our very salvation
have fast been ruined and with them
| the ruin of our water resources to the
Mississippi and it's principal tributa-
| ries.
Under the water famine conditions,
it is proposed to reserve at the head
waters of our principal streams in the
northern part of the State-as in the
region of the Rockies-a vast tract Of
governmental lands unsuited for
agriculture. If it can be secured and
consecrated to perpetual forest I'M
der police regulations, our main lakes
and rivers will be rescued from utter
extinction.
In this absolutely necessary and
beneficent undertaking, the friends of
forestry ask for state wide co-opera-
tion. But this is not enough for water
reservoirs. Dense forests should be
planted on all our waste places and on
all the borders of all our water troughs
to the amount at least of one-third OF
our territory.
j. O. BARRETT,
Secretary of the Minnesota State
| Forestry Association