The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-01-26
Average daily circulation 81
The Journal for Dec. 1902,
5000:
First Steps in Forestry.

We have had a long discussion now Of
the question Of forest preservation in
Minnesota, and SO far as it affects the
question of state action. there seems to
be substantial agreement that the state
should begin system Of reforestatfon
Yet, so far legislatures have viewed sus-
piciously the smallest grants for this great
purpose. This year the forestry commission
has made bold to ask for a continuous
appropriation Of $1,000 a year, to be used
lin purchasing land for forests and in their
scare.
e. The board estimates that there Is about
5000, 900 acres Of land in Minnesota which
is better adapted to forestry than to any
other purpose; or to put IT in another
way, which is good for no crop except
trees. The conditions are not such. as
to encourage private capital to go into
the wood-raising business; yet the pros
pect of the not far distant future, when
lumber will be scarce and expensive, is
not an alluring one. Neither is it pleas
ant to contemplate the probability that
for years to come we shall have with us
that abomination of desolation, a cut
and burned-over forest region that will
raise nothing but trees, and is not assisted
to raise them.
No forest should be permitted to stand
where better use can be made of the
1and-as is the case with much Of our
Minnesota forest land-but there ought
to be a forest wherever no better use of
the land can be made. The forestry board
1rac Ut
appropriation at the rate Of more than
$2;5 an acre. Minnesota land that Is
not worth more than that is pretty GER
tain not to be adapted to agriculture
Then it is not the purpose to acquire more
than one-eighth of the area Of any one
township, and finally the county is to
receive, In lieu Of taxes, one-fourth Of
the revenue accruing from the forest
We consider this a modest and COM
mendable measure. a measure that ought
to be enacted into law. If it becomes
law it will add greatly to the prosperity
and well-being of the state in years to
come, and will at once begin to make no.
ticeable transformatio in some of our
northern counties. '~,. 49,
service should be strengthened and i'm
proved, and measures should be adopted
looking to the patrolling of the forests in
especially dangerous seasons for fire. The
salary of the warden, whose office is a
very important one, should be increased
from 81, zoo to a. respectable figure. These
amendments to the existing fire warden
law would not require more than a few
thousands of dollars, and would be we'll
spent. .
IL AS the forests are to be created so far
as possible around the headwaters Of riv-
ers, Minneapolis has a powerful local in
terest to enforce the general state interest.
1t is hardly to be doubted that forest
growths tend to distribute and reserve
water flow checking the flood tendency
ON the one hand and the drought on the
other. Anything that does that will give
US a more reliable water power from
the Mississippi here, and water
power Is coming to be more
and more important. What is
true of Minneapolis is true of Duluth, of
st. Cloud, Of Little Falls, and of every
town that depends on water power to any
extent. 1t is true that the forestry meas
ure is one that promises more good to our
children than to us, but legislators of the
first rank have always builded for the
future as much as for the present, and
utility to this generation,