Forests and Forestry in Wisconsin. 155 



trees loaded with apples. Trees in his regular orchard, where ex- 

 posed to sun and wind, were affected more or less with blight and 

 scald, but not a leaf was touched where standing among the 

 evergreens. 



Mr. George A. Austin, of Neillsville, wanted to defend the 

 lumbermen from some of the charges made against them in regard 

 to the needless slaughtering of the pine ; wantonly cutting it to 

 destroy it. It is true that in the thick timber much is destroyed in 

 cutting and getting out the large trees ; this is unavoidable. 

 Much of the timber that is cut is past its prime, and if left stand- 

 ing longer would depreciate in value, and then in many instances 

 they are compelled to cut it to save it. Where fires have run 

 through the woods, the trees would in a year or two become 

 wormeaten and worthless, if not cut and worked up at once. Es- 

 timates made by the best judges in the pine districts place the 

 amount of timber destroyed by fire running through the woods, 

 -as much greater than what has been cut and run into the market. 



In regard to the generally received opinion that forests exert a 

 beneficial influence by increasing theyield of the cereals, especially 

 wheat, he would like to call attention to the fact that in the 

 counties west of them where you can ride all day and not see a 

 forest and hardly a forest tree, they raise large crops of wheat, 

 while in their section where you are hardly ever a stone's throw 

 from heavy timber, wheat-culture is a failure. 



Mr. W. W. Field said he had not been a close observer in re- 

 gard to this subject, but he was satisfied, from what he had seen, 

 that there was more timber in Southern Wisconsin to-day than 

 there was thirty years ago, and that, as you may say, not an acre 

 of it had been planted. There was no doubt but that in the 

 northern portion of the state, the timber was being cut faster than 

 it was growing, but if the fires are kept out, in thirty years, every 

 acre of this land will be covered with a beautiful growth of timber 

 again, and, if the fires are not to be kept out, it will be of no use 

 to set it out to timber. . As to the effect of timber on the growth 

 of cereals he would say that the past season he had seen thous- 

 ands of acres of wheat and other grain, the best he had ever seen 

 anywhere, growing where there was not a stick of timber in sight. 



