The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-01-23

dowment to the state! Very few states
indeed, have the natural resources for
such great work. Individuals will not,
and cannot, wait eighty years for a crop
of timber to grow, and if our waste
lands are to be utilized the state must
undertake the enterprise"
Minnesota has not to contend with the
difficulties that confront many other
states, especially in the west, with their
problems of water supply. of compromis-
ing with the great live stock industries
and less product in soil. Here certain re
suits may be obtained at less expense
than one would ordinarily suppose. The
approximate cost was found by an ex-
pertinent in replanting cutover lands
near Grand Rapids by Superintendent
Chapman sof the state sub-experiment
station at that place. The cost of plant
ing pine trees from one to three feet
high was from $2,0l per acre with 4S5
trees to the acre and four feet apart. At
the end of about year 81 to SO per cent
of them were alive and thrifty. The
waste land that will be reforested by
the state contains considerable young
timber and, of course, need not be plant
ed by hand; this considered and the econ
omy of conducting the work on a large
scale, the cost will actually be much less.
''The secret of forestry is that pine in
our climate WILL by it's growth on such
land, as it is proposed to utilize,ea bet
ter revenue than government bonds; but
as it takes eighty years for pine on such
soil to attain merchantable size, indivi
duals cannot be expected to engage in the
business 1t must be done by the state.
Nature will furnish most of the capital"
But she must have the help of those who
must depend on her resources.
1t is not strange that forestry practice
has not been introduced before. We
have always had vast supply of virgin
timber offering more than we could use.
To tie up money in an investment that
provides benefit only to posterity has
seemed, of course, like throwing it away.
But something must be done for the for
ests of posterity sometime, so we cannot
admit the objection that it will yield us
no returns at once. Let us remember that
many of the privileges we now enjoy are
due to the unselfish efforts of men of the
past There is no wrong in the lumber
man denuding large areas of marketable
timber as he does, but he must replant
and protect those areas as the European
has learned to do under the supervision
of the government. Most OF. the old coun-
tries have allowed their forests to decline
as America is doing, and have been forced
to bring them under direct state control.
The regeneration of forest lands in
cludes more than one might at first
thought believe. Besides promoting our
lumber supply, sustaining great and
permanent industry, providing a grand
endowment to the state and giving our
state distinction for wisdom; there are
other considerable adventures that will
be gained such as promoting water sup
ply to our streams, equalizing the eli
mate, identifying the landscapes, infus-
ing life and industry into regions that
otherwise might remain a wilderness, af-
fording wages to thousands of workmen,
and making of good roads. All this will
once tell of successful forestry and the
wisdom of you who may now direct the
FIRST steps of this enterprise. Now it is
the duty of every city to contribute
to such strong popular sentiment as
will arouse definite action on the part of
the legislature. Several important things
may be accomplished at any time. An
educated public sentiment on forestry
would induce the state to acquire pos
session of the waste, agricultural
tracts of eut-over land, now held by pri-
vate parties, and have them put in per-
manent pine forest. It would influence
our senators and representatives in con-
gress to have the Chippewa Indian lands
that are NON agricultural, managed on
forestry principles; and finally it would
result in United States geological survey
of United States lands in condition more
suitable for forest than agriculture, and
subsequently their control and manage
ment by the state with the view to
sustaining yield of pine.