Everywhere the waters teemed with fish and from spring until fall they were alive with water fowl of many kinds, while in the woods the wild turkey and grouse remained throughout the year, and the passenger pigeon came in flocks so large and so tame that they could be secured by the thousand. This was the beautiful home of the Chippewa, who depended on the forest and water for shelter and food, broke trails through the woods and used the streams and lakes as his highways. He used the forest, but did not destroy it, and when the white man came he found an unbroken forest and not a region of burned-over waste lands.

To-day the southern part of the state is cleared and settled and the forest is limited to the woodlot of the farm. In the northern half the conditions are different. Axe and fire have destroyed practically every acre of the pine forest proper, and these sandy pinery lands to-day are cut- and burned-over wastelands. The hardwoods have suffered, but have suffered less, so that they still support a considerable lumber industry. On the whole it is rather surprising to find such large areas of woods and wild lands in so old a state and so near some of the centers of population. Of the north half of Michigan only about fifteen per cent is settled and over ninety per cent is unimproved wild land. A day's ride on the train brings the resident of Chicago into the heart of the upper peninsula, an area of over ten million acres, in which fully ninetyfive per cent of all lands are woods and wilderness. The tourist finds here all that he can wish for. A variety of conditions, bold, rocky, wood-clad hills, fine hardwood forest on gentle slopes, and broad stretches of interesting tamarack and cedar swamps, and everywhere lakes and ponds as pleasant surprises, and streams of cold, clear water rushing to the great inland seas. Little wonder, therefore, that the state forests in Michigan did not originate, as did the Adirondack Park of New York, in the desire of the people for a place of rest and recreation. In Michigan the state forest came out of an attempt to solve a political land problem and at the same time satisfy a public clamor for a beginning in forestry.

When the lumberman of Michigan had cut the pine from a section of land and the fire, which invariably followed every operation of this kind, had destroyed what the axe had left, the owner no longer cared to pay the usually exorbitant taxes, and simply left the land to revert for non-payment of taxes. After a few

years these lands became tax lands and were regarded as property of the state. During this transition and often for ten and twenty years after, the state spent its good money in advertising these lands and bookkeeping and thus the lands became a serious burden, which some years amounted to over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Even after the state succeeded in getting rid of the lands, they were rarely settled, but generally bought merely to skin off some remnants of timber which had escaped the fires. In an effort to end this useless and wasteful business and also to make a beginning in forestry, the friends of forestry urged the holding of these lands as state forest. In 1903 about thirty-five thousand acres in Roscommon and Crawford counties were set aside and placed in the care of the State Forest Commission. Practically all of these lands had come into the possession of the state for taxes. They were poor, sandy, pinery lands, with a considerable proportion of swamp. Aside from the swamp-woods there is no real forest, and considerable areas were jack pine and scrub oak plains, which were without merchantable timber when the forest of the district was exploited. The work done upon these lands consisted in protecting them against fire and trespass, in their survey and classification, and in an estimate and description of the woods. In addition, a nursery was established and several large plantations set out. The plant material or trees raised in the nursery and set out on the waste lands are largely pine and spruce. In keeping with the public character of the enterprise, a number of experiments have been undertaken to find the most effective and satisfactory ways of restocking lands of this kind. In addition, large quantities of the plant material were sent out to landowners all over the state, with a view of encouraging the setting out of trees and woods.

So far the only use that has been made of these state forest lands for recreation consists in fishing and hunting. There is still considerable game, some deer and bear, few grouse, and some ducks and geese during migration. Hunting is permitted without restriction beyond that of the general game laws of the state. While thus the state forests of Michigan hardly belong to the enterprises here considered, this is only partly true and will probably not be true in the near future. For some months past the new "Public Domain Commission," which has entire charge of all state lands and forests, has been setting aside additional tracts, so that now there are over

one hundred thousand acres of state forest. It has also under consideration a plan to make some of these forests game refuges. Should such a plan succeed, it would add much to attract the visitors who, in their vacations, love to combine rest and the enjoyment of nature.

PARK SYSTEM OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY

BY FREDERICK W. KELSEY,
Orange, New Jersey.

The Essex County park system was the first undertaking wholly under county initiative and control. The plan involved at the outset a dual method of administration: a special commission for selecting the parks, their development and future regulation, while the financing of the enterprise was left with the regularly constituted county authorities. In recent years we have become familiar with commissions for local parks, but I have not been able to learn that any similar county undertaking was in existence in 1894, at the time of the inauguration of this scheme.

The movement in favor of parks and recreation grounds was accentuated by the rapid growth of Newark and other contiguous cities and towns within the county. While this interest in parks and other improvements was quite generally diffused at the inception of the county park plans, it was largely confined to individuals. The realization of this ideal was also badly hampered from the fact so generally prevalent in this country, that the men most competent to deal with such questions were too deeply engrossed in their private affairs.

The city of Newark had made a commendable effort from 1867 to 1871 to secure a public park. The legislature, in April, 1867, authorized a commission of twenty-six members to select and locate grounds for that purpose. The subsequent location of but one park in the northern part of the city resulted in rival claims being urged for the southern section, which so complicated the situation through jealousies and the spirit of sectionalism as to prevent further action either by the legislature or by the city authorities.

In 1892 a report of the Newark Board of Trade, favoring the immediate acquisition of parks, was well received, but nothing further came of it. In January, 1894, the plan for a county park system was launched, and there was immediate and generous response from every city, town and borough in the county. The victory was easily won because the plan proposed was simple,

VHE FIBKYBA

direct and practicable. It was readily understood, and was susceptible of immediate and effective execution.

The suggestion for this plan was brought out at a dinner in Orange, January 3, 1894. A meeting was soon after arranged at the Board of Trade rooms in Newark. The park committees from Orange and Newark were present and the plan was unanimously approved. The late A. Q. Keasbey and the writer were then appointed a sub-committee to prepare a bill for the legislature, embodying the features of the plan. This draft of the bill was promptly approved by the committees at a meeting held April 25, 1894, and the same day transmitted to Trenton for introduction into the senate. It was passed by both houses with hardly a dissenting vote, and on May 8th, within two weeks after its introduction, was approved by the governor.

The provisions of this law were very simple. The presiding county judge was authorized to appoint a commission of five persons for the term of two years to "consider the advisability of laying out ample open spaces for the use of the public . . . . in such county," with "authority to make maps and plans of such spaces, and to collect such other information in relation thereto as the said board may deem expedient;" and to "make a report in writing of a comprehensive plan for laying out, acquiring and maintaining such open spaces." The commission was also authorized to employ assistants, and to be reimbursed for actual traveling expenses incurred "in the discharge of their duties." The total expenditures were limited in the act to ten thousand dollars. The payment was to be provided by the board of freeholders-in New Jersey the county governing board-in the county tax levy in the usual manner. The commission was appointed June 18th, two members from Newark, one from Orange, one from South Orange, and one from Belleville. The judge in making the appointments referred to the "great public interest in the subject, pro and con, and mainly favorable to it," and considered it his "duty to appoint men who are so favorable to this enterprise and so desirous that it should be executed that they will be judicious enough to make such recommendations as will be approved by the public, so that the work will be finally accomplished." Up to this time no political pressure or other scheming influences had been active.

It was my privilege to serve as an official and member of the