340 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE FOREST WEALTH OF MINNESOTA. 



PROF. SAMUEL B. GREEN, ST. ANTHONY PARK, 



According to the best available figures in regard to the lum- 

 ber industry for 1900, there were at that time 438 lumber establish- 

 ments in Minnesota, with a capital of about fifty-four million dol- 

 lars, of which 43% was used in logging, 19% in sawmill plants, 

 3% in planing mills and 35% was live capital. The value of the 

 product is put at $57,000,000. The total number of employees was 

 22,500; the number of horses employed was about 5,000. 



This gives some idea of the great value of the lumber industry 

 to Minnesota, but we are working our great forest resource as if 

 it were a mine and would not grow again, and at our present rate 

 of manufacture this resource will be practically exhausted within 

 the next ten or fifteen years. Although experts do not expect Min- 

 nesota to cease being a lumber producing state, yet the end of its 

 great lumber industry is now within sight. 



The state of Minnesota holds two and a half million acres of 

 land within the forested area. This amount has been received for 

 various purposes. Under the constitution, the state cannot dispose 

 of its land for less than $5.00 per acre. A large amount of land 

 now held by the state is of no value for agricultural purposes, as 

 it consists of land which is very rocky and ledgey, and of inferior 

 soil. On its land tbe state now has about one and one-half billion feet 

 of timber, valued at $6.00 to $8.00 per thousand feet board 

 measure, or a total of about ten million dollars, which will prob- 

 ably be converted into cash within a few years. This state resource 

 is also being worked as if it were a mine and would never grow 

 again, although it might be used as a permanent endowment for our 

 school and other funds. 



There is probably at least five m'illion acres of land in Min- 

 nesota that is of little if any value for agriculture, but much of it 

 will grow valuable trees ; and there is probably five million acres 

 more that is now in trees but which is of such quality that it will not 

 be needed for agriculture for many years, and much of this will 

 yield better returns in forest than in farm crops. If this land was 

 in normal forest condition, it would, according to the minimum 

 estimates of experts, give an annual yield of not far from one 

 billion feet board measure per year, or considerable more than one- 

 third the present annual cut in Minnesota. In other words, if 

 properly protected it would serve to perpetuate our great lumber 

 industry. 



