Prof. Beal, With Aid of Stereopticon, Shows
What Can Be Accomplished.
President Bissell then introduced Dr. W. J.
Beal, of the Michigan Agricultural College,
stating that he would read a paper on "What
Forestry Can Do for Michigan in the Immediate
Future," in:
(a) Saving the remnant of original stands.
(b) Protecting and utilizing the second growth.
With the aid of the stereopticon, Dr. Beal
gave an interesting talk and illustrated to the
audience many phases of life in connection
with the prospecting for and lumbering of timber
from Michigan lands which has resulted
in the almost complete extermination of the
forests of the State. He said: As a gentle
reminder let us refresh our memories by glancing
at a few views which show some of the
agents which have helped to reduce the forests
of our State. The men with designs on
timber were in their offices and are not here
shown, but we show a foreman, nicely robed,
in his cutter, going to the camps with orders.
Note the giant cork pine in the midst of a
dense growth of other trees; a pine grove of
Norway, with a dozen men ready with saws
and axes; men cutting timber; teams rolling
logs; laborers taking dinner in the woods; logs
going to mill by team and by river; great
loads of posts and logs; one load of pine logs
60 feet long, scaling 30,066 feet, board measure,
drawn a mile by one team of grade
Clydesdales, owned by Pack, Woods & Co.
Here views of stumps, brush and charred logs,
and poor trees left as food for fire; and here
eager crews getting logs off the banks into the
river. Here are great banks of "large logs,
some of them 60 feet long; now men working
to start a jam of logs down the river. Here
men assorting logs by getting them into the
right ways to different mills; here loading
logs and telegraph poles onto cars, where the
engine hurries them to the mill yard. Here
a mill where 60 men convert logs into lumber
and sawdust, and here a thread-like road winding
along the hillside with nothing in sight but
remnants of logs and charred stubs. See in
the next mass of logs, down and standing,
where the lumberman has taken all he wanted,
 - a fearful waste soon to be burned again and
again when the dry weather comes, leaving no
pines alive and no living tree above the ground,
where the few small stumps may send up
sprouts, the fire permitting.