The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1923-10-04
Lake States Assured For
est Experiment Station
u. S. Department of Agriculture
Will Cooperate With Minnesota
Farm School

A new forest experiment SCdClON
has just been added to those already
established by the United States De-
partment of Agriculture. This new
station will be called the Lake States
Forest Experiment Station and will
have it's headquarters at st. Paul,
Mimi, under a cooperative agree
ment with the Minnesota Agricul.
tural College, which will furnish it
with suitable laboratory and office
space.
This station makes the fourth OF
the forest experiment stations under
the department to be furnished the
forest regions of the eastern United
States, the other stations being known
as the Appalachian at Asheville, N.
c., the Southern at New Orleans, and
the Northeastern at Amherst, Mass.
The Importance of the Lake States
station can not be emphasized too
strongly, says the department, for
the forestry problems in this region
are exceedingly great, and it is ex,
pected that the forest experiment sta
tons will aid the progress of forestry
as much as the agricultural expert
ment stations have aided the progress
of agriculture. Few farmers would
expect to make a profit from wheat,
corn, hay or orchards if they gave no
care or attention to the growing of
the crop. Certainly the farmers do
not attempt to raise crops merely b!
harvesting what nature provides in
the way of volunteer growth without
any preparation of the soil, without
fertilizer, with no selection of varie
tbs, with no cultivation or wedding,
no protection against fires, insects or
diseases. Yet this is the way that
we have so far treated our forest
lands and the conditions in Mime
sofa, Wisconsin, and Michigan show
it at the present time.
For example, the Michigan timber
land area amounts to approximately
10 million acres, of which IL million,
or more than three-fourths of the
total have been cut over and are
generally nonproductive. Similar
conditions exist in both Wisconsin
and Minnesota, and this region, which
once led the United States in lumber
production, is now so badly depleted
of its timber resources that its place
is being taken by Western States.
The money once poured into the re-
gion by the consuming lumber centers
now is being used to pay the freight
on lumber which has to be shipped
for long distances.
One of the primary objects of the
Lake States Forest Experiment Sta
ton will be to develop ways and
means of making the cut-over and
nonagricultural lands once again pro-
ductive. The station will gather bas-
ic facts about forest renewal and for
est growth so that it will be possible
for the region to maintain the vari-
Gus lumber and paper industries on a
permanent and sustained basis.
DR.. Raphael Zon, forest economist
of international reputation, will be
the director of this station. He
brings to this new work breadth of
knowledge and an understanding of
forest problems, not only for this
region but for the whole country. He
is very familiar with the Lake States
region and has written several bue-
letins on the various native species
Assisting DR.. Zon will be J Kit
,redge, who has been in charge OF the
Office of Forest Investigations OF the
Forest Service for several years. s
A. Mitchell, formerly of Caiiforn-
aia Forest Experiment Station y