124: STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



A SKETCH OF THE ORIGINAL DISTRIBUTION OF WHITE PINE IN 

 THE LOWER PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN. 



C. F. WHEELER. 



In the lower peninsula of Michigan, the white pine {Pinus stroMs) was originally 

 found scattered throughout the part of the state north of the 43rd parallel of north 

 latitude. The actual southern limit of lumbering operations, that is, where the 

 pines grew in numbers sufficient to be lumbered, is shown in the accompanying 

 map, on pag-e 123. by a dark line extending across the state, fi-om Port Huron on the 

 east of Covert, in Van Buren county, on the west. South of this line were a few 

 straggling white pines in Oaliland, Shiawassee, Livingston and Ingham counties, 

 while along the Lake Michigan shore they were found southward to the Indiana 

 line. The actual distribution of the white pine in this extensive region Avas due, 

 to a large extent, to the quality and condition of the surface soil. This most 

 valuable tree delights in sandy ridges in the neighborhood of streams, rivers and 

 lakes and seldom grows in large, solid tracts away from these water courses. 

 Where gravels and clays and various mixtures of these soils are found, numerous 

 broad leaved trees struggled for supremacy forming tracts of mixed hardwood and 

 pine forest. 



In the counties of Bay, Arenac, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Otsego, Antrim, Kal- 

 kaska and all of Leelanau were found fine forests of hardwood containing more or 

 less white pine intermixed. In the counties of Iosco, Oscoda, Crawford, Ros- 

 common, Missaukee. Clare, Grand Traverse, Lake, Mason and Newaygo, occurred 

 the so-called "barrens" or "plains," where the soil is sterile and more or less covered 

 with Jack pines {Pinus dicaiicata) and little white pine is to be found. 



The largest and best pines were scattered among hardwood trees, towering above 

 them— relics, probably, of the time before the hardwood existed. 



The geological conditions of the great northern lobe of the lower peninsula, north 

 of the Grand-Saginaw valleys, due to the large extent of the very friable Marshall 

 sandstone found there, furnish the sands and gravels that the pine tree delights in. 

 The rainfall of this region, combined with evaporation from the surrounding great 

 lakes, was the chief remaining factor in the problem of the original distribution of 

 white pine in Michigan. 



Estimates of the total amount of white pine growing in our state have been made 

 at various times. In 1835 the standing white pine was put down as one hundred 

 and fifty billion feet, an estimate probably much too low. The census report for 

 1880 puts the amount of merchantable timber (white pine) remaining in the lower 

 peninsula at twenty-nine billion feet. The total cut for that census year was esti- 

 mated at a little over four and one-half billion feet. 



The latest estimates of the amount of standing white pine remaining in Michigan 



were made in the year 1896-97 by Hon. Chas. H. Morse, the State Commissioner of 



Labor. These estimates appear in the 14th annual report of the Bureau of Labor 



Statistics. Schedules were sent to svipervisors of townships and from the returns 



received the figures on the accompanying map are compiled. It was shown that 



there were approximately 775,208 acres of white pine still standing in the forests 



of Michigan at that date. The distribution of the pine, hardwood, "Jack pine 



plains," and swamp lands is shown on the map. The first set of figures in each 



county denotes the aci"es of hardwood in that county; the next set of figures the 



acres of pine; the third the acres of hemlock; the fourth the acres of "plains" land, 



and fifth the acres of swamp land. 



C. F. WHEELER, 



Consulting Botanist. 



