156 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



kinds of timber. Numerous expressions in regard to the growing 

 scarcity of desirable hard-wood supplies for manufacturers will be 

 found in the report of this Department on the exhibit of wood manu- 

 factures at the New Orleans Exposition. No better indication of the 

 state of forest supplies can be given than the trade reports in lumber 

 IJapers. 



As the accuracy of the statistics and estimates in Government 

 reports has been questioned and their value doubted, it may be of 

 interest to publish the following extracts from a letter recently re- 

 ceived from Mr. G. W. Hotchkiss, for many years Secretary of the 

 Lumbermen's Exchange at Chicago, recognized as an authority in 

 lumber statistics. 



He says: 



So far as Wliite Pine (Pinus strobus) is concerned, it occupies to-day a position in 

 forestry analogous to the Indian in the body politic, practically a thing of the past. 

 Of course there are sections which \vill last for many years (not so very many either), 

 but the great bulk is gone, and, hke the straggling tribes, but a remnant of former 

 sti-ength and power remains, and but a few decades more and they will be known 

 only in history as a tiling of the past. One hundred years ago Maine, Vermont, 

 New Hampsliire, New York, and Pennsylvania could boast vast forests of \\Tiite 

 Pine. West of the lakes, Michigan, Wisconsin, and JMinnesota, so late as fifty years 

 ago, were unbroken in forest resources, and the White Pine predominated. To-day 

 Maine gives us some spinice and a little small sapling pine, such as would hardly 

 have been sent for firewood in her palmy days of lumbering. Vermont, New Hamp- 

 sliii-e, and New York may still boast an occasional clump of trees, but have lost all 

 pretensions as lumber-producmg regions, Pennsylvania has a few hundred nulUon 

 feet on the sides of the AUeghanies, but has dropped out of the list as a lumber pro- 

 ducer. East of the great lakes nought remains (excepting the spruce forests of 

 Northern and Eastern Maine) save hemlock and hard wood, and these in very lim- 

 ited quantities, insufficient to supply the home demand in a majority of localities. 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are the last remaining resorts for lumbermen 

 east of the Rocky Mountains. Originally there was probably 150,000,000,000 feet B. 

 M. m Michigan, ]jut fifty years' work has reduced the supply to probably not over 

 twelve to twenty billion feet, with an annual average cut for the past five years of 

 not far from four and a half billions; and the cutting is so close as to extermmate 

 all the pine timber on the tract operated upon, Wisconsin can hardly be estimated 

 at over tliirty to thirty-five bilhon, httle more than would suffice to supply the con- 

 sumption of the United States as a whole for one year. Minnesota, set down in the 

 census of 1880 as having 11.000,000.000 feet B. M,, an amount disputed by some as 

 too high, by others as too low, if allowed to-day at 10,000,000,000, could furnish but 

 one year's supply for the mills of the Northwestern pine-producing States. In fact, 

 if the mills of these three States were run to their capacity for six years there 

 would be but little pine left for the seventh year's production. And these estimates 

 of timber include the red or Norway pine, which forms a noticeable percentage of 

 the whole. In Michigan and Wisconsin there are still large quantities of hard wood, 

 but it is not being cared for with that appreciation of its value which is desirable. 

 It has, however, this advantage, it can be reproduced. Pine cannot.* The future 

 timber supply of the East must be largely from the hard woods. The vast forests 

 of the Pacific slope will supplement this with such soft lumber as may be needed. 

 Before many years the forests of Alaska wiU swarm with enterprising timber seek- 

 ers. Already those of California, Oregon, and Washington Territory have been the 

 subject of research, and vast amounts of Eastern capital are already invested tliere, 

 British Columbia, west of the mountains, will supplement the suppiv, but our 

 children will bring their pine and fir from Alaska. Meantime the supply east of tlie 

 Rockies once denuded will be known no more, except tlu-ough wise Government 

 action in protecting and encouraging timber culture. Our present laws in this re- 

 spect, so far as they relate to taking up land, are a farce, falling little short of 

 tragedy, as the Government parts with the land without accomplishing the purpose 

 of the grant in one case in a hundred, until it has lost control of all sufficient areas, 

 which might be made a blessing to our successors in life's race, 



I have not for some years given the subject of Southern production so much 



* This can mean only reproduction from the stock. Reproduction of White Pine 

 from seed is as easily effected as that of any other conifer, but of course requires 

 special management, as will be outlined further on in thia report. B. E. F. 



