MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

ON

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF
MICHIGAN

BY

VOLNEY M. SPALDING

ANN ARBOR, APRIL i, 1898.

LI0/E?

THE INLAND PRESS
ANN ARBOR, MICH.

MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

xt—

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

ON

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF
MICHIGAN

BY

VOLNEY M. SPALDING

ANN ARBOR, APRIL i. 1898.

THE INLAND PRESS

ANN ARBOR, MICH.

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF MICHIGAN,

PROFESSOR VOLNEY M. SPALDING.

In Michigan, as in many other States; t^3 (desirability*, ojr,
perhaps better, the necessity of a survey of ihe natural re-
sources of the State was early recognize^.'/- In 183:7 BwimG?
Mason approved an act providing for a geological, zoological,
botanical and topographical survey.

It is of interest to note that the early surveys, or explora-
tions, that followed were not limited to a study of the mineral
wealth of the Territory. The flora of the regions visited
occupied no inconsiderable part of the time and attention of
the explorers, and Dr. Houghton's plants in the University
herbarium are, many of them, after the lapse of over half a
century, still among the finest in the collection. Economical
considerations, however, soon led (1840) to the repeal of those
portions of the act that pertained to zoology and botany, and
but little more was undertaken in this direction until the sur-
vey of 1859 and 1860, the report of which, transmitted by
Professor Winchell, in 1860, included geology, zoology and
botany, the zoological part consisting of an enumeration of
birds, reptiles, batrachians and mollusks, while the part de-
voted to botany includes a list of vascular plants, with remarks
on distribution and economical relations.

Since that date the survey has been geological. Its sci-
entific and practical value are not questioned, but it is at least
an open question whether a return to the more comprehensive
plan of the original promoters of the survey is not desirable,
and whether there is any reason to suppose that at the pres-
ent time there are under the earth in Michigan things about

973710

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY.

which it is more important for us to know than it is to know
about those in our waters and in our forests.

The practice of other States may be expected to throw
some light on this question. Our neighboring State of Ohio
has published, as part of its voluminous report of the Geolog-
ical Survey, a large volume on the zoology of the State, in
which the honored and lamented Chief of the Survey, Dr. J.
S. Newberry, takes occasion to speak at some length of the
educational and practical value of this part of the work; and
Iftdia^a, in tts Purvey by counties, has made large provision
for the study of the plant-life of the State, with the object,
amoilg other things, 'pf preserving, for future generations, a
permanent record of the flora as it now exists.

New York State many years ago made appropriations for
the natural history side of its survey, and has continued this
liberal policy to the present time, and the recent reports of the
Geological Survey of New Jersey give large space to the
report of the botanist, while Pennsylvania has recently organ-
ized a comprehensive survey of its forest resources, and States
farther south have set an example which we may well con-
sider. The work of the Alabama Biological Survey comes to
us as an example, with the ripe fruits of the long and well-
directed activity of that rare scientific genius, Dr. Charles
Mohr, and with a corps of younger men eagerly pushing for-
ward into fields that still in Michigan wait our explorations.
Can it be that the atmosphere of the Gulf is more invigorating
to workers in science than that of the Lakes ?

But in some of the newer States of the West we find a
still fuller realization of the broad views and more comprehen-
sive plans that, partly in the light of experience and partly as
the result of a growing conviction of the inter-dependence of
all organic science, have been embodied in the practical work-
ings of the State Surveys. In Minnesota the Survey was
organized as late as 1872. It was named — and the name is
significant — The Geological and Natural History Survey of
Minnesota, and was placed under the direction of the Board of

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 5

Regents of the University. "The Survey is comprehen-
sive in its scope. The fields of investigation named in the
original act are geology, botany, zoology and meteorology." *
The results of the investigations already made include so many
bulletins, scientific papers and reports that an enumeration
would occupy too much time, but they stand as witness to the
liberality and breadth of view with which this Survey has
been conceived and so far carried out, and we may congratu-
late the people of our vigorous sister State on " the steadiness
of purpose that has held the Geological and Natural History
Survey of Minnesota to its work."

It is, perhaps unnecessary to go further, although other
examples are not wanting of the fact that States characterized
by generous and enlightened views have provided, and are now
providing, means for surveys not limited by the bounds of a
single science, in which plant and animal life are recognized as
being quite as worthy of study as the mineral wealth of the State.

Unfortunately, this is not true of our own State. Former
papers before this academy have not failed to emphasize the
patent fact that Michigan, so far from being a leader among
the States in organized biological work, conducted by the
State, is far behind others that started later; and the fact that
a special committee appointed for the purpose of securing
appropriations from the Legislature for printing the publica-
tions of the Michigan Academy of Science has thus far met
with no success may well lead to careful seeking after the
cause of this apparent indifference. Are we producing noth-
ing worthy of the attention of the State ? Or is our work
good enough in its way, but of no money value, and conse-
quently something that the public money ought not to be spent
for? Or is there some occult reason, not yet suggested, for a
condition of affairs that, to say the least, is not creditable to
the State of Michigan or to the scientific workers within its
borders ?

*Hall C. W. The University of Minnesota, an Historical
Sketch. Minneapolis, 1896.

6 A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY.

Without attempting here and now to discuss these ques-
tions, it is enough to say that, however far from our ideal the
record of the past has been, present opportunities constitute
an imperative call to present duty. There are certain press-
ing problems of both economical and scientific interest to
which we should address ourselves.

In Michigan two such problems are presented by our for-
ests and fisheries. It is to the former that I wish for a short
time to direct your attention. The facts are familiar, but I
am sure that those who have already done so much in this
direction are the very ones who will most gladly listen, if by
any means we may at length see more clearly and take some
actual forward steps toward the working out of the great prob-
lem involved in the future of our. Michigan forests.

The pine belt of Michigan formed in its day part of one
of the finest natural forests on the face of the earth, with its
magnificent cork pines hundreds of years old, towering above
equally beautiful specimens of sugar maple, basswood, rock
elm and other deciduous trees, constituting the beautiful
growth of hard wood that still covers so many square miles of
northern Michigan. It was a forest that did not grow in a
day. It takes about two hundred years for a white pine tree
to come to maturity, and many of those cut by Michigan lum-
bermen were much older, so that when lumbering was com-
menced in the State one of its great natural resources that had
been hundreds of years in making changed rapidly into another
form of wealth and disappeared. The later history is familiar
to you. Year after year saw gigantic lumbering operations
farther and farther extended, and fearful fires sweeping
through the debris, carrying thousands of acres of virgin for-
est to its doom, with the homes and hopes of settlers, leaving
such a picture of desolation as haunts the memory of one who
has passed through it, all the more appalling because of the
tragic wreck of human interests, and the apparently hopeless
outlook for the future.

It is well for us servants of the State, even if devotees of

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 7

pure science, to try and form some conception of the magni-
tude of an interest that has been so conspicuous an element in
the material development of the Commonwealth. Briefly,
then, as early as 1881 the aggregate value of the forest prod-
ucts of the State was estimated to have reached more than a
billion dollars, and now after half a century of lumbering, and
after the closing of one great mill after another and removal
of the operators to other fields, the State of Michigan alone
produced in 1897, 2,335,000,000 feet of lumber and
1,284,000,000 shingles. These figures may produce no real
conception of what they stand for, but they may help us in
some measure to appreciate the fact that the prosperity of the
State has been due very largely, if not chiefly, to its forests,
and that the State must inevitably suffer a loss not easily esti-
mated through the certain diminution of this great source of
wealth.

We may now raise the question whether all this is any
concern of the State, whether as a Commonwealth it is under
any obligation to seriously take up the question of forest
reserves and State control, and, if so, what can be done? And,
in the second place, we may inquire whether individual citi-
zens, and especially those who have had scientific training,
have a duty in the premises.

There is a school of sociologists who hold that the func-
tions of government should be reduced rather than extended;
that they govern best who govern least; and that "the good
of the nation is attained by inactivity rather than by active
exertion of the government, by allowing the individual to
work out his own salvation (or damnation) amid the free and
unrestricted play of natural forces, rather than making them
do so." Such laissez-faire doctrines, however, will hardly ap-
peal, to that more enlightened and healthy public sentiment
that regards the function of government as legitimately exer-
cised " wherever co-operation of the whole will accomplish the
end aimed at by society better than individual effort." *

*Fernow, B. E., Science, Vol. II., p. 258.

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY.

Now, as pointed out by Dr. Fernow, from whom I have
already quoted, government has what may be called providen-
tial functions in regard to natural resources. It is the " rep-
resentative not only for communal interests as against individ-
ual interests, but also of future interests as against those of
the present. * * * Its activity must be with regard to
continuity, must provide for the future, must be providential,'*
and this in the case of such a natural resource as the one
under consideration is possible only under the supervision of
permanent institutions, with which present profit is not the
only motive.

These principles embodied in the scientific forestry of the
Old World have resulted in the establishment of a well-nigh
perfect system under which in France the sandy wastes of Gas-
cony have been covered with productive forests, and denuded
mountain slopes, the play of destructive torrents, have been
clothed again with their protective covering of sod and trees;
while in the German Empire a clear annual revenue of
$40,000,000 shows something of what is practicable under
State control of forest property.

In the New World, in recent years, one State after
another has come to recognize the necessity as well as the rea-
sonableness of government care of the forests, and in several
States important legislative enactments have defined the
policy and rights of the Commonwealth in this direction.

In the State of New York a law enacted April 25, 1895,
provides for a Commission of Fisheries, Game and Forests,
with power to appoint thirty-five foresters, whose duty it is to
enforce all laws and regulations of the Commission for the pro-
tection of fish and game and for the protection and preserva-
tion of the forest reserve and all rules and regulations for the
care of the Adirondack Park. The law provides further- for
the care and superintendence of the forest preserve, for pro-
tection against fire, actions for trespasses, and for the pur-
chase and taxation of lands belonging to the State.

The New York State Legislature last year appropriated

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 9

$1,000,000 for the purchase of land in the Adirondack region,
and the State now owns 800,000 acres (out of the 2,500,000
acres) of forest land in that section. This year $500,000 will
be placed in the hands of the Forest Preserve Board to con-
tinue the purchase of forest lands, and part of this sura, it is
expected, will be expended in the purchase of 25,000 acres
that will be given in trust to the authorities of Cornell Uni-
versity for twenty five years, with the aim of having an exper-
iment in forest preservation and culture tried.*

It is thus \\ith well-matured plans, looking far into the
future, that the State of New York has made liberal and far-
sighted provision for its forest interests, finally calling to the
aid of the State the services of the University and giving a
quarter of a century in which to conduct an experiment that
can hardly fail to be productive of important results.

The Legislature of Pennsylvania, at different times with-
in the past few years, has passed laws establishing and pre-
scribing the duties of a Forest Commission to report upon the
condition of the slopes and summits of the important water-
sheds of the State, the amount of standing timber, the part or
parts of the State where each grows naturally, and to suggest
measures for maintaining a proper timber supply. Provision
is further made for the enforcement of laws designed to pro-
tect forests from fire and for the preservation and increase of
the timber lands of the State and for securing forest reserva-
tions adjacent to waters draining into the Delaware, Susque-
hanna and Ohio rivers.

Most instructive, perhaps, on account of similarity of
conditions, is the recent history of forest legislation in Wis-
consin. The Legislature of 1897 passed a law authorizing the
Governor to appoint a commission consisting of three mem-
bers to devise and draw up a plan for the organization of a
State forestry department. The plan is to include provisions
for the reservation by the State of all lauds which are better
fitted for the growing of timber than for agricultural pur-

*New York Tribune, February 19, 1898.

10 A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY.

poses, the purchase of similar lands abandoned by their owners
and the management and replanting of forests according to the
principles of scientific forestry. They are also to draw up a
plan by which the forestry department may be from the first
self-supporting and in time become a source of revenue to the
State.

It was provided that the commission should receive no
compensation, but the services of a competent expert con-
nected with the Forestiy Division at Washington were secured,
and $500 towards his actual expenses were provided by the
State Geological and Natural History Survey. Mr. Filibert
Roth, who was detailed for this work, entered upon his task
with characteristic energy, and in a month's journey visited
27 counties with a total area of 18.5 million acres. His report *
is of special interest, giving, as it does, a remarkably clear
statement of the condition of things over an area embracing
fully half of the State of Wisconsin, including 8.5 million
acres of cut-over land, most of which is burned over and
largely waste, and on which some twenty billion feet of pine
has been destroyed by fire. The value of the timber product
of former years is suggested by the statement that "the for-
est industries have built every foot of railway and wagon road,
nearly every town, school and church, and cleared half of the
improved land in northern Wisconsin."

The discussion of the future of this great area, once a
natural forest, now largely a wilderness, necessarily involves
great uncertainty. Mr. Roth proceeds to show that in Wiscon-
sin "the hardwoods, though perfectly able under normal con-
ditions to hold their own and continue as forests, have not done
so," and " that hemlock has failed to reproduce itself for a
longtime," while the white pine "is perfectly capable not
only to continue as a forest, but also to reclothe old burned-
over slashings on all kinds of soil. But it is equally certain
that the great mass of pine slashings have remained and will

* Preliminary Report on Forest Conditions in Northern Wis-
consin. Washington, 1898.

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 11

continue to remain barren wastes, and that of the 8,000,000
acres of cut-over lands in north Wisconsin not one-tenth is
stocked with growing timber. And the swamp woods have no
future, for it is here among the tall marsh grass and masses of
dead poles that most of the fires start.

" In this way an area now nearing 8,000,000 acres, and
rapidly increasing in extent, remains unproductive. Counting
only 20 cubic feet, or 100 feet B. M., as the annual growth per
acre on lauds entirely without any care or protection agains^
fire, the State of Wisconsin loses annually by this condition of
things 800,000,000 feet B. M. of marketable saw timber; nor
is this all, for even with primitive management this amount
could be largely increased.

" The assertion that this land is needed for agriculture,
that it soon will all be settled, and that even the sandy soils
produce potatoes and are profitably farmed by improved meth-
ods, may well be answered by a concrete case. The old settled
counties Waushara, Adams, and Marquette have an aggregate
area of 1,144,000 acres; their improved land amounts to
340,000 acres, leaving fully 70 per cent, or 804,000 acres, in
brush and waste lands. In 1895 these counties supported wood
industries whose product amounted to the pitiful sum of
$13,000, and probably the material for these was imported, in-
stead of having 80,000,000 feet of pine to sell, which under
simple methods of care might have been derived from these
brush and swamp lands.''

It will be seen that in this preliminary survey and report an
important and valuable contribution has been made, which has
opened the problem for further information, demonstrating
meanwhile the extent of the interests that are involved in its
practical study. The Forestry Commission of Wisconsin fully
realizes this, and is actively at work with plans for the
future.

The similarity of conditions in the two States and the
solid progress already made in Wisconsin suggest that we can
probably do no better at present than to adopt substantially

12 A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY.

the same measures. The initial expense to the State is so little
as to be hardly worth mentioning, and the end to be obtained
is of such far-reaching importance as to warrant, or rather im-
peratively demand, the earnest work and personal sacrifice that
will be involved in this patriotic effort to restore in some meas-
ure the forest wealth of Michigan and to make forever impos-
sible the frightful waste of natural resources that has been so
conspicuous a feature of our recent history.

It will naturally be asked: Is this all that the Michigan
Academy of Science is to do in formulating plans for a Nat-
ural History Survey of the State? Workers, many of us, in
pure science, are we to rest satisfied with merely formulating a
plan by means of which the material interests of the State are
to be subserved ? Ought we not rather to develop a compre-
hensive plan by means of which biological relations of every
kind shall be brought under scientific investigation ? Shall
we not leave practical matters to practical men and give our-
selves to that to which we were called — our laboratories, our
students, and the pursuit of science for its own sake.

Such questions lead finally, as it seems to me, to the an-
swer that the interest of one is in the end the interest of all.
Scientific investigation, in Michigan at least, is to a great extent
dependent on means provided by the people of the State, who
are paying, generally with cheerfulness, sometimes with more
or less questioning, for the equipment of the laboratories in
which we work. Such is our dependence, let us frankly ac-
knowledge it, and hold ourselves ready to make such return as
we are able. On the other hand, the people of the State are
dependent — more so, perhaps, than is sometimes admitted — on
trained scientific men for the working-out of nearly every
problem affecting their material interests. There is not a prac-
tical man in Michigan competent alone to successfully work
out the problem as to just what the State ought to do in the
preservation and profitable management of its forests. Here
the services of trained scientific experts are indispensable, and
fortunately this University was, eight or ten years ago, en-

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY, 13

gaged in training the man who is now fitted to render this ser-
vice and stands ready to do so.

In the second place, a full recognition of material obliga-
tion and the taking-up of just such practical problems as this
will not hinder, but will pave the way for, the more extended
investigation of the natural history of our State that we all
hope to see accomplished. It is, I am convinced, the part of
wisdom to begin our Natural History Survey of Michigan with
this great and pressing problem; but no one could think for a
moment that it should end there. Here, as elsewhere, means
are certain to be forthcoming as it becomes evident that they
are deserved, and I believe that we may to-day begin to plan
for just such a comprehensive biological survey of the State as
would satisfy the most extended and exacting scientific require-
ments, assured that in due time we shall have full means for
its accomplishment.

I should hardly think of attempting off-hand to draw up
a requisition or to unfold a comprehensive plan for such a sur-
vey. But there are certain principles, or facts, that through
their inherent reasonableness must, I think, command general
assent and upon which we may proceed until we can see
further.

First, there ought to be within the State a collection of
books of such extent that the literature of any branch of nat-
ural history may be within the reach of specialists, without
the necessity of borrowing or undertaking long and expensive
journeys. Such collections of books are a necessity, and the
development of scientific work in Michigan will be advanced
or hindered according as they are or are not provided. We can
not have these books in a day; but we can and ought to make
their necessity known, and to use every legitimate means to
secure them. The State of Minnesota, in connection with its
Natural History Survey, appropriates year after year what
would seem to us a munificent sum for the purchase of books
that go into the University library and there become perman-
ently available for purposes of research.

14 A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY.

Secondly, there ought to be provision for the publication,
by the State, of all material that has assumed sufficiently com-
plete shape to be an actual contribution to our knowledge of
the various plants and animals within our borders. Not a lit-
tle valuable material, to the knowledge of the writer, lies
packed away in the laboratories of the State that should be
published as a part of its Natural History Survey, that with
the assurance of publication in creditable form would be stead-
ily growing, instead of remaining at a standstill. It is, I
think, the duty of our Academy to press this upon the atten-
tion of the State government until the want is supplied.

In the third place, passing now to matters that may be
determined largely by individual agreement rather than by
State action, we may profitably aim both at greater specializa-
tion and more intelligent co-operation. When one has made
himself a thorough student in any special field it would seem
both courteous and expedient for all of us to recognize that
field as his, to send him material that falls into our hands, and
to co-operate with him in every way in our power. I do not
mean, of course, that a summer or two of amateur work con-
stitutes a claim to pre-empt any special group or subject, nor,
on the other hand, that any one should be precluded from
doing his utmost in any field whatever to which his choice may
lead him, but that we ought to recognize the necessity of a
division of labor, and also the fitness of looking to those who
for a score of years or a lifetime have carefully worked some
restricted field as the natural depository of material, and author-
ities to whom we may go for help and to whom we may gladly
render service in their further studies.

Lastly, the question of organization — by no means an
easy one — is best approached by an attentive study of the
recent experience of other Commonwealths. If we were start-
ing without traditions, with the virgin soil of a new territory
open to us, it would, perhaps, be hardly possible to devise an
organization with a more comprehensive, practicable and rea-
sonable working basis than that of the State of Minnesota.

A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 15

But we are not starting that way. Our State Survey has its
traditions. We have several centers of scientific work instead
of one and it is inevitable and desirable that, directly or indi-
rectly, they should have a hand in much at least of the scien-
tific work that in the future is undertaken by the State.

This condition of affairs would perhaps suggest a form of
organization similar to that of Indiana, in which a Biological
Survey was inaugurated by the Academy of Science five years
ago. This has since been adopted by the State, and is quite
distinct from the Geological Survey, though working in entire
harmony with it, the State Geologist being an active mem-
ber of the Academy. "In a very short time," says Pro-
fessor Stanley Coulter, " the work in this survey was felt to
be of great importance to the State. An application to the
Legislature secured an annual appropriation of $600 for the
publication of the proceedings. The Academy furnished the
material and the editorial supervision without cost to the State.
The State, however, prints and provides for the distribution of
not less than 1,500 copies annually of the proceedings." We
have then, at our door, a successful solution of the question
by a State in which the situation of affairs at the inauguration
of the Biological Survey was nearly identical with that in the
State of Michigan at the present time. We can hardly do bet-
ter than to learn of our neighbor and move forward.

To recapitulate: It has been the purpose of this paper to
formulate and emphasize the following facts:

1. The responsibility of the State for a scientific study
of its own natural resources has become fully established by
the continuous practice of our own and many other States.

2. Equally well established in theory, and in various
States in practice also, is the fact that a Biological or Natural
History Survey is of as great importance and has as great
claims upon the State as a Geological Survey.

3. The time is favorable in Michigan for undertaking a
Natural History Survey; and the State Academy is the nat-
ural source from which the movement should originate.

16 A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY.

4. The survey should be projected on a broad, liberal
and comprehensive plan, but it should include at the outset a
specific problem of practical importance and at the same time
of scientific interest.

5. Such a problem is presented in the future of the waste
lands once covered by the pine forests of Michigan. It is cer-
tain before long to attract enough public attention to become a
subject of legislation, and our present attitude may do much
to determine the course of events in this direction.

6. Meantime there is every reason in favor of proceed-
ing as rapidly as practicable, along lines already suggested, in
the development of our State Biological Survey. This, in
fact, if not in form, has long been in progress, as the studies
of ' Unionidse in Michigan,' the ' Birds of Michigan,' the
'Michigan Flora,' and various other pieces of work of high
scientific merit abundantly testify. But it is time now that the
undertaking should be organized, that the State should recog-
nize its duty to this form of scientific work, and that we our-
selves should be forming clear conceptions of the problems
that, in wonderful, if perplexing, interest, are sure to attend
into the twentieth century the Natural History Survey of
Michigan.

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