The Saint Paul globe., 1902-03-21
SAVE The FORESTS
FIRE WARDEN ANDREWS POINTS
OUT THE ECONOMIC AD-
VANTAGE OF 1T
PROFIT IN USE OF WASTE LAND
Three Million Acres of Non-AgricuI-
turaI Lands Can BE Planted
With Pine mt Small
Cost.

State Fire Warden Gen. c. c. Andrews,
who for the past FIVE years has been con-
Quoting a campaign of education on the
general benefits of forestry and what
forestry can do for Minnesota, says that
he feels encouraged to believe that popu-
lar sentiment is becoming somewhat in
terested in the problem. Gen. Andrews
says:
The significance of forestry for Min
nesota is that pine timber will grow
profitably on such poor and waste tracts
of land as are unfit for agriculture. 1t Is
estimated that there are in scattered
localities, and principally in Northern
Minnesota, 5000 coo acres of waste, sandy,
hilly or rocky land that is fit only for
bearing pine forest. Hence, if the state
were to now begin to plant that land
with pine at the rate of 1880 acres per
year, the whole would in eighty years
become well stocked normal forest per-
petually thereafter yielding 675, ,000, 600 feet
board measure annually. The net annual
revenue to the state would be just what
this amount of 615,000,000 feet would, at
such future time, be worth standing. 1t
might be s., COO, coo or more. What a great
endowment this would be for lie state.
Besides yielding a splendid revenue
from lands now worthless and waste, it
would afford steady labor for thousands
OF people and it would also tend to
beautify our landscape, modify the tenn
perature, fertiliZe the soil, and replenish
cur water supply. Very few states in
deed have the natural resources for such
a great work. individuals viii net and
cannot wait so many years for a crop of
timber to grow, and if these waste lands,
which become each year more barren and
useless, are to 3e saved and utilized the
state must undertake the enterprise.
Our timber supply is diminishing at a
dangerous rate. There are now remain
ing in Minnesota from 10000 0J000S to
$1,000 100000 feet Of pine, and this is now
being cut at the rate of one-half billion
feet per year, and the greater part of
this is shipped out of the state. It is not
difficult to figure how long this main sup
ply will last at this rate. The average
value of standing pine is about 81 per
LOC0 leet. Already there are two or three
sorts of Pacific coast lumber in most of
the lumber yarl : of Minnesota competing
with our home products. AS our supply
Of Virginia pine diminishes the tendency
will be for the price Of lumber to ad
vance. There are 100000 acres of good
farming land in Minnesota not yet under
cultivation, and it's development will de-
pend not little on the future abundance
and cheapness of lumber.
From these facts it Is clear that it
would be wise economy for the state of
Minnesota to at once begin to cuure
possession of these various tracts of
waste land and plant them vii. pine. A
large portion of this land now belongs to
the government and it would not be very
dlfhcult for our representatives in con-
gress to have an act PASSED whereby
these non-agricultural tracts could be Sc
Iected and certified to Minnesota for .or-
estry purposes. The cost of planning
pines is not so large as imagined. An
experiment at the Minnesota station at
Grand Rapids has proved that the
average cost of planting pines, 2,722 trees
to the acre, is s11.20 per acre; the cost Of
planting 1,21O trees to the acre is $3.50
per acre; of planting 681 trees to the acre.
$3.14, and of planting ass trees to the acre
$2.01 per acre.