UTILIZATION AT THE MENOMINEE INDIAN MILLS, 

 NEOPIT, WISCONSIN. 



By Ne;lson C. Brown. 



In these days of extensive forestry and until the problems of 

 forest taxation and fires are solved, and the market conditions 

 improve, we can practice just as good forestry by making careful 

 use and taking care of what we already have as in growing new 

 timber. It has been estimated that in the United States only 37 

 per cent, of all the wood that is grown is actually used whereas 

 in some countries of Europe about 96 per cent, is used. This is 

 the best explanation of both the amount of damage done by fires 

 and the prodigal waste of our timber supply. The burden of this 

 discrepancy however, lies with the enormous waste both in the 

 woods and at the saw mills rather than with fires and insect 

 damage. 



Careful utilization, moreover,, to be successful must be profit- 

 able and throughout the country the big saw mill operators par- 

 ticularly are coming to realize the benefits from developing special 

 markets for their by-products, not only of the mill itself but of 

 the species in the woods which formerly have been considered of 

 little or of no value. Profitable utilization of by-products is 

 usually dependent upon the following factors : 



1. Markets or demand. 



2. Transportation facilities or cost of placing the product on 

 the market. 



3. The labor question or cost of handling which is closely re- 

 lated to the second factor. 



Perhaps one of the best examples of utilization in this country 

 is found at Neopit, in east central Wisconsin where the United 

 States Indian Service during the fall of 1908 constructed a large 

 band saw mill and planing mill to cut the timber belonging to the 

 Menominee Indians. For this enterprise the funds of the 

 Menominee Indians were used and they are therefore the real 

 owners of the operation. The area of the Menominee Indian 

 Reservation is approximately 10 townships or 230,400 acres and 

 contains a total stand of nearly two billion feet board measure or 



