The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1911-01-07

The necessity OF amending our present
with the organisation to that and Of
separate state land department.. IL now gen.
expects to sell its land. ana induce settlers te
buy the same, In my opinion the law should
De SO amended as to permit of sales being
live county auditors. and upon terms, that
while fair not only to the state and the set.
| 70 the latter. and a separate land department,
organized.
Before reforms in our land laws can BE-
appears wise and apparently legally neces-
sary to- submit the proposition to the people
In order that the state lands may be
sold to best advantage 1t Is very desirable
that sales should be made at all times on
lands, but this involves a legal question and
also one Of public policy.
It is not necessary that the policy OF
should be entirely abolished. When the
pubic lands have been properly appraised
make sales to bona fide settlers at ali times 81
and still continue to make smaller public
sales at more frequent intervals say, every
thirty or sixty days, when in his judgment
thereby.
Neighboring states. owning only a small
traction OF public domain as compared with
ours, have separate land departments, while
in Minnesota the land commissioner for
no direct and systematic daily check upon
his land. timber, and mineral transactions
such as the auditor himself gives all other
departments and business, except the one
or two examinations by the public examiner
IN recent years which cover only limited
the public wisdom and necessity Of amend
d ing the o old system improSsed in pioneer
himself, as shown by his report.
Department Of Forestry.
The original forest area of Minnesota is
estimated at over one-half of the total land
surface of the state, or Approximately 2S.-
OOO,o0O acres. The present forest area may
be estimated as covering less than one-fourth
OF the state. or approximately $4,000, 900
OF our total wooded area 1.204,4s6 acres
are set aside as Q national forest reserve
ana snd
in the Indian reservations, making total
Of over 100000 acres of national govern
est reserves aggregate about 10000 acres.
The total standing timber in twenty -one
Estimated by he fores Nefe eommiss Ee at
about twenty billion feet, nearly one-half
of which is supposed to be pine. At the
a year, 1t would take about twenty years,
without the help of forest fires, to complete
the denudation of state which once had
areas.
It would seem as though the necessity of
and business like administration were so
plain to the general public and to the MEM
bers OF this legislature. that argument should
be unnecessary. The state has just experi-
enced another chapter of horrors in con-
nection with the Rainy River Valley forest
the is
ministration. But the Hinckley. Chisholm
eating millions Of dollars worth Of properly
and many human lives. tell only part of the
sad story. To this we must add losses by
lect Of growing forests as well as loss Of
opportunities for reforestation. 1t Is estimat-
ths %ne
the strongest possible argument for ade--
auate methods OF protection. development
The state also has large area Of cut
over lands that are valuable chiefly for re-
forestation. and the same applies to con-
siderable area OF our swamp lands. When
we read the reports of European state for
ests and note what earnings are derived
that timber is one of the most valuable crops
that soil may produce and that land OF little
generous revenue producer by scientific for
estry
In scientific forestry administration swed-
Her net revenue over cost Of administration
Increased from 100000 in 1880, to 1900, 900
sweden by purchase and reforestation has IS
increased its state forest area As per cent,
1000 acres thereof being acquired by
sofa has received nearly ten times that
a amEunt in government govern grants WITHOUT q
sofa today consumes about double the
amount of lumber which it produces. while
Sweden, next to Russia, is the greatest ex-
porter Of lumber in the world
The forest problems of our state have been
sadly neglected. For protection against for
est fires, Minnesota spends less than one
fourth Of what Is required for effective
results, and in the way of practical forest
administration conducts only few scattered
experiments with nothing like a compre-
hensive, scientific and businesslike system Of
forestry The cost of forest fire protection
should be borne by the benefited forest
property on the basis OF an insurance risk,
share Of the cost. On this basis, the cost Of
fire protection need not be materially in
creased against the general taxpayer, and
then only as he gets liberal returns for in
surance against loss.
AS showing that our timber lands justify
on business grounds reasonable expenditure
for administration, I present herewith the
auditors statement Of pine lumber cut from
Minnesota state lands for the past six years: