A FORESTRY FORTUNE. 



OUR WEALTH OF COMMERCIAL WOODS. 



A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE TREES OF MICHIGAN AND THEIR USES. 



BY W. J. BEAL, PKOFESSOB OF BOTANY, STATE AGEICULTUKAL COLLEGE. 



From her location among the great lakes in a temperate climate, Mich- 

 igan long ages ago was destined to be a great state for growing timber. 

 The people of this century know the results. 



For many years past, from Maine to Dakota, from the District of 

 Columbia to Kansas, the lumber of white pine has been more universally 

 employed than any other, especially where the lumber was transported. 

 This is because the timber is light, soft, abundant and satisfactory. Its 

 light weight saves cost in transportation; the ease with which it is worked 

 saves labor, from the time the logs are cut in the forest to the time they 

 reach the finished structure. In early days, before railroads were abun- 

 dant and efficient, in certain localities, whitewood or tulip tree, known in 

 the south as "yellow poplar," took the place of white pine. Until a 

 recent date most of the lumber of white pine and whitewood used 

 in the construction of houses and cabinet ware was covered with 

 paint. This was the fashion everywhere, perhaps encouraged by the lack 

 of variety in the appearance of these two woods, though in limited quan- 

 tity they are very pleasant to look upon when well finished and properly 

 covered with oil or varnish. 



As white pine became less abundant and higher in price, people dis- 

 covered that there was scarcely any limit to the supply of many other 

 kinds of wood still left, which for most purposes were preferable to pine. 

 It is only a few years since builders and manufacturers fairly realized that 

 lumber of our various broad-leaved trees — mostly hard wood^was very 

 pretty when suitably cut and finished in oil or varnish or with the addition 



