284 TRANSACTIONS OF THE KANKAKEE 



thousand and one needs of the farmer. But perhaps no phase of 

 the forestry question will have so great an interest for the average 

 farmer, or more likely to arouse the general public, than the promul- 

 gation of the fact that our available supply of lumber material is 

 rapidly diminishing, and very soon the end will be reached. Michi- 

 gan had left standing last fall 29,000,000,000 feet of pine lumber, 

 which will last seven years at the present rate of cutting, as her 

 lumbermen are cutting over 4/ )00, 000,000 feet annually — over forty 

 hundred million. Wisconsin has 41,000,000,000 feet, which will 

 last twenty years at the present rate of cutting. Minnesota has 

 6,100,000,000 feet, which will last ten years. Now these are the 

 main sources of supply for all the western country and much of the 

 south; at the present rate of cutting this supply will be exhausted 

 in eleven years, and 3^et our late congress saw not the necessity of 

 removing the tariff on lumber. Pennsylvania has pine enough to 

 last five years, and hemlock to last fifteen years. Maine has spruce 

 and pine enough to last sixteen years. New Hampshire does not 

 return a single pine tree, but has black spruce enough to last ten 

 years at the present rate of consumption. It is true that some of 

 the southern states have pine enough to last them a long time at 

 the present rate of cutting, as they are cutting very slowly. Texas, 

 for instance, has enough to last three hundred years, but the Michi- 

 gan lumbermen, at their present rate, would clear Texas in five 

 years. It is not only pine, but all other lumber trees are getting 

 scarce. Fift}^ thousand acres, mostly hardwood, are stripped each 

 year for railroad ties alone. When I was a boy black-walnut lum- 

 ber sold from $10 to $15 per thousand feet, and now $75 to $100 

 is demanded, and other kinds of hardwood lumber are perhaps four 

 times as high as they were forty years ago. 



L. E. Cunningham — I have ash-leaved maple twelve years old, 

 fifteen inches in diameter, and this year T made five gallons of syrup 

 from a few of these trees. 



Mrs. Mary Barnard — I noticed in an article written by S. Chase 

 that he says that the forests of Maine that are now being cut, will, 

 in twenty-five years, have trees large enough to use for lumber. 



BEST VAKIETIES OF SMALL FRUITS. 



L. E. Cunningham — It is well understood that for this locality 

 there is no cherry equal to the Early Richmond. Raspberries — 

 black, the Gregg; red. Turner is the best. Blackberries — Snyder and 

 Kittatinny. Strawberries — I consider the Crescent superior; plant 

 with Sharpless, Wilson or Bidwell for fertilizers. 



