THE LUMBER INDTTSTRY. 17 



Altlioiirrli tlui {j;r(!;it forests of VVIiitc I'iiie in Maine have disappeared, a small amount of this 

 material is still cut in the State every year, so that sinee 1881, on the I'enobsetjt, tor instance, out 

 of a total cut of about ISO million leet per year between li4 and 30 million feet have been i)ine, the 

 pine thus <;enerally formiiiji' 15 to 20 per cent of the entire output. 



In Pennsylvania tiie exploitation ol' W.hite Pine likewise began quite early. I'ittsburg 

 furnished iiine lumber to points along the Ohio and even to St. Louis, Mo. As late as 1850 

 Philadelphia received its 150 million leet of lumbiir, largely White Pine, from the State, inii)orting 

 but very little from New lOngland and the South. At Williamspo.i, the center of Wliife I'ine 

 lumbering in Pennsylvania, the lirst large mills were erected about 18;J8, and the bulk of the pine 

 was cut prior to 1870. 



In the Ibrties the White Pine product marketed at Williamsport excelled in tpiantity all other 

 points of production. The highest production was reached in 1873, with nearly 300 million feet 

 B. M. in logs boomed, which in 1803 had sunk to a little over one-tenth of that amount. ^Vhile 

 in 1873 the amount of timber standing was estimated as 3,300 million feet U. M., in 1800 the State 

 commissioner of forests places the remainder at 500 million feet B. M, 



The only uncut White Pine forests of Pennsylvania now standing are isolated bodies in the 

 more inaccessible parts of Clearfield, Lycoming, and Tioga counties. 



In the State of New York, too, which in the Adirondacks and in the western counties con- 

 tained considerable quantities of White Pine, the species is largely cut out. Hardly more than 5 

 per cent of the cut is now of White Pine, the output fi-om the Adirondack mills being in the 

 neighborhood of 25 million feet B. M. 



The exploitation of White Pine in the Lake region began during the thirties, when small 

 mills were erected at various points, both in Michigan and Wisconsin. The first steam sawmill at 

 Siiginaw was built in 1831, and the first mill at Alpena was built two years later. Nevertheless 

 the lumber industry of both Michigan and Wisconsin remained insignificant until toward the close 

 of the fifties, when most of the present sites of manufacture had been established. Ten years 

 later (1870) the annual cut of White Pine in Michigan and Wisconsin amounted to nearly 4 billion 

 feet; Minnesota had scarcely begun to contril)ute to the output; and in the marketing the rail- 

 way was fast displacing the older method of rafting. The progress of lumbering is well illus- 

 trated in the following figures from the Northwestern Lumberman, representing the annual cut of 

 lumber alone from 1873 to 1897 : 



.Iniiiiiil cut uf liimhir (ijcliisirc of xliiiK/les and latliis) of the three Lake States, Micliiyan, ll'mcoiisbi, 



and Minnesota, 1S73-1S97. 



FeutB.M. 



187;i 3, 993, 780, 000 



1871 3, 751, 30r>, 000 



1875 3,968,553,000 



187H .3,879,046,000 



1877 5,595,333,496 



1878 3, 699, 472, 759 



1879 I, 806, 943, 000 



Feet 7i. M. 



1886 7,425,368,443 



1887 7, 757, 916, 784 



1888 8, 388, 716, 460 



1889 8,305,833,277 



1890 8,664,504,715 



1891 7, 943, 137, 012 



1892 8,903,748,423 



1880 5, 651, 295, 006 ' 1893 7, 599, 748, 458 



1881 6,768,856,749 | 1894 6,763,110,619 



1882 7,552,150,744 ' 1895 7,093,398,598 



1883 7,624,789,786 1S96 5,725,763,035 



1884 7,935,033,054 1897 6,233,454,000 



1S85 7, 053, 094, 555 . 



Or, dividing the time into periods of live years each, the figures are as follows: 



Cut of lumber (exrlusirc of shhii/les and laths) in Michiyan, /CiscoKSiH, and Minnesota, lii/ jiiriuds of 



fire years. 



Foet. 



1876-1880 21,562,090,361 



18.S1-1885 36,933,924.888 



1886-1890 40,542,339,679 



1891-1895 38,302,143, 140 



Total 137,340,498,068 



20233— No. 22 2 



