Forests and Forestry in Wisconsin. 153 



Mr. Plumb, of Milton, was not surprised that the farmers who 

 had worn themselves out in their younger days in clearing farms 

 in the timber lands did not want to keep at it ; neither do we ex- 

 pect them to feel the importance of this question, yet there is a 

 practical side to it, and one of great importance, both to us and to 

 the future interests of our State. From the examination he had 

 given the subject, he was convinced that within the next ten years 

 there would be a great scarcity of good, first-class timber here. 

 Our native trees are dying out. The best of the timber, espe- 

 cially the pine, is being cut off. A year ago he traveled througli 

 Kewaunee and Door counties, once covered with the densest and 

 most beautiful timber of any portion of the State, and now the 

 greater part of these counties is as bare of trees as the prairies 

 themselves, and still they are cutting down the few trees that 

 are left. 



This winter he had seen in Southwestern Missouri large yards 

 of "Wisconsin lumber for sale, and it was scattered all through. 

 Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. In Southern Kansas, lumber from 

 our state is selling at two and three dollars a thousand in advance 

 of rates in Southern Wisconsin, and all over the prairies of the 

 west and southwest they are using up the products of our pineries 

 in their buildings, fences, etc. This shows an immense drain on 

 our timber resources, which must sooner or later completely ex- 

 haust our forest?. Many have an idea that Wisconsin is a very 

 large state, and that the northern portion is covered with heavy 

 timber, whereas the heavy timber belt is at the most less than a 

 hundred miles in width, and narrows down as you go east and 

 west. When you get fifty miles north of the center of the state, 

 you leave the thick timber. From there to Lake Superior what 

 there is, is of an inferior character. The northwestern part is but 

 lightly timbered, and while there is more in the northeastern por- 

 tion, it is becoming very thin. The result seems inevitable that 

 our supply of first class timber must be exhausted, and that too 

 at no distant day, and, if we are to have enough to supply our 

 own demands, we must resort to planting. 



In regard to the black oaks, he believed that they were bound 

 to go. Twenty-five years ago the capitol park was thickly cov- 



