HARDWOOD RECORD 



BLACK ASH. 



CHEiaiY. 



TIMBER OF MICHIGAN. 



< 'ailillac achieved its original reputation as 

 a lumber producing section from the splendid 

 qiuiJity of its white pine, which grew in large 

 quantities and in very dense stands in the 

 region of which that city is the center. These 

 magnificent forests have been almost entirely 

 dismantled; such white pine as may be found 

 is the occasional tree interspersed with hard- 

 wood growth. The present important timber 

 stand of the region is the hardwoods and 

 hemlock, which still abound, and are held by 

 Cadillac operators to the extent of perhaps 

 250,000 acres, or enough to keep the several 

 sawmills of that city in active operation for 

 well toward a quarter of a century to come. 

 The white pine growth originally extended in 

 irregular patches over quite a portion of this 

 area also, but the hardwoods and hemlock were 

 considered of very little value in those early 

 years and were not cut at the time the white 

 pine was felled. Involved with the white pine 

 growth was a large quantity of very excellent 

 Norway, which materially contributed to the 

 total lumber output of the district for more 

 than twenty years after it became a lumber 

 producing center. Now Norway pine is also 

 a matter of history. 



Today' the lumber sawed at Cadillac consists 

 entirely of hemlock, hard maple, gray elm, 

 rock elm, basswood, birch, beech and black 

 ash. Of the total remaining stumpage, per- 

 haps twenty-five per cent is hemlock, and of 

 the remaining portion fully forty per cent is 

 hard maple. Next in importance is the gray 

 elm and following this in regular order are 

 beech, basswood, birch, rock elm and black 

 ash. The average annual output of lumber of 

 the Cadillac district is approximately 125,- 

 000,000 feet. Up to this time the region has 

 produced approximately 4,000,000,000 feet and 

 it will therefore be seen that its lumber his- 

 tory is but little more than half completed. 



It is universally conceded that the original 

 white pine and Norway growth, upon whicli 

 the fame of Cadillac was founded, was very 

 high — perhaps as high as that of any other 

 pine producing section of the country, but of 

 still more excellent quality, comparatively 

 speaking, is the hardwood and hemlock 

 growth. A specific description of these vari- 

 eties of hardwoods will prove interesting be- 

 cause the soil of this region produces timber 

 types that are certainly far superior to sim- 

 ilar species growing in any other region. The 

 hard maple is of the very highest quality, and 

 iu the following woods operations one sees 

 tree after tree ranging from sixteen to twen- 

 ty-four inches in diameter, in which a silver 

 dollar will cover all the heart defect. The 

 gray elm of the region stands pre-eminent 

 among its kind and no better beeeh grows 

 anywhere. The remaining rock elm is said by 

 experts to be the best that exists. The bass- 

 wood is of excellent type, as are all the other 

 woods enumerated. 



Hard Maple. 

 Acer saccharuin. 



Unquestionably the highest quality of hard 

 maple growing anywhere is that range of it 

 in the northern portion of the southern penin- 

 sula of Michigan, from Cadillac and Gray- 



SiiFT MATLE. 



WHITE CEDAR. 



