Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-10-01
SEEING THE FAIR
 IN DETAIL

Nfchisan's Great Problem In Forestry.
 Six Million Acres of Pine 1arrens Staring Her In the Faoe--Makips a
 Beginning by Planting Eighty Thou
 sand-Eessons From Michlgan's For
 sstry Exhibit Some of the Romance of the Northern Bays--How Old King
 Strang, the Mormon Leader, Met His
 Death Fifty Years Ago-Thinas That
 Divert One Fron, tho Usual siahtses-
 inG-The New Abrasives That Save
 Labor and Patience and Make Life
 More Like Holiday.
 ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE BY
 MARK BENNITT.I
 Two square carmine spots on a white ground of the shape of lower Michigan tell of states first feeble efforts to recover her prestige in lum- Der production Those spots look about as large as two wild ducks float ing across the atmosphere before the eyes of an amateur hunter. There is so much room around them that 1t looks like a hopeless case. But the chart which hangs in Michigan's for estry exhibit indicates brave spirit, and the two red spots represent S0,0O0 out of the 0,Ooo, GOO acres of denuded pine lands of the lower peninsula. Michigan is actually going into the re- forestation of her sandy barrens that are worthless for any other purpose except to grow the h1ckIeberrfes that have sprung up where the pine has sbeen cut out. Not only have the big trees been taken, but the lSmaIl trees of pine and spruce are now going to the paper mills, there to be clipped, cooked, digested and run out into miles of paper web. Even this article may be printed upon a sheet of paper made from Michigan spruce tree.
 The foresters have figured it all out, and Michigan feels that she is up against the forestry problem in it's most acute form. The doctors of for estry urge her to take her medicine 'bravely, and she has consented to the amount of homeopathic dose name ly, SO,O00 acres. That much of. the de nuded area will be planted anyway. Every year considerable amount of barren land is forfeited to the state through tax sales, and thrifty state desires to see the ground put to some use. The southern two-thirds of the lower peninsula is 87 per cent improv- ed land, a vast expanse of rolling coun- try made up of prosperous towns, smil- ing farms and happy homes. The north ern one-third reyerses the figures. The land is still a wilderness except in spots and is destined so to remain. II will cost a prodigious sum to plant 100000 acres to pine trees, but they will grow in value at the rate of $20,. OO0, 900 year, so the foresters assert, for fifty years, when they will be worth $1,OO0, ,oOO,00 Then the timber may be cut at the rate of $30,00O, ,0O0 worth a year without ever decreasing the sup ply. It remains to be seen if Michigan ds so prudent.
 But Michigan is still g great lumber state, and many of her best towns still thrive upon the lumber industry, with a little help from summer tourists Hemlock and hard woods are still be ing cut, millions of feet annually, and the woods and shores have lost little oi their romance if one bat has an eye out for things of the sort. Ask Ivan Swift to tell you about the Michigan forests If you should stop at the exhib. 1t, and he will weave you tale that will rival any you have heard in its romantic quality, for Swift is bott painter and writer. Some of the old French frontfersmen who. came tc Michigan from the lower St. Lawrence in 1S40 or thereabout are still alive and earning their $1.25 day, as they have done for many a year They still dwell among the lumber piles and along the shores of the northern bays and when not a-logging are pursuing the ever fascinating occupation oi catching fish. Among them you may stili hear the tale of how old King Etrang, the Mormon leader sof the Beaver island colony, was shot at St James by Billy Bedford, whose wife the old king had coaxed away. And then will come the sequel of the trage dy, tte scattering of all the colony by the outraged French fishermen and the hopeless distribution of the Mormon women at every settlement around Lake Michigan. That was in 1854, and though fifty years have passed tho ruins of old King Etrang's castle may still be seen on Beaver island, snd yog may follow the twenty-five mile road which the Mormons built, the length oi the island, to connect their inland karms with the island landings.