THE WHITE PINE. 



INTRODUCTION. 



For two centuries and a half the White Pine has been universally employed for purposes of 

 construction in the Northern United States. Its abundance and the combination of qualities 

 which adapts it to an almost unlimited number of, uses have made it the most important and the 

 most highly prized of all the timber trees of the region to which it is indigenous. In several of 

 the Northern States it has been a more constant source of wealth and has yielded larger returns 

 than any other single product. Thus, for instance, in 1879, a fair year for comparison, the natural 

 products of the State of Michigan were estimated by Governor Jerome as follows : ' 



Agricultural products $88, 500, 000 



Timber 60,000,000 



Copper 8,000,000 



Iron 10,000,000 



Salt 2,000,000 



Fish , 1,000,000 



According to this estimate the value of the timber products, chiefly White Pine, was at that 

 time, in round numbers, six times that of the iron, seven and one-half times that of the copper, 

 and thirty times that of the salt product of the State, and amounted to about 35 per cent of all the 

 products of the State combined; and if the value of the entire White Pine product of the present 

 year (1898), some 7 billion to 8 billion feet B. M., be taken into consideration, it will exceed in 

 value at first points of production th> entire gold and silver output of the country, which is not 

 much less than $100,000,000. 



Commercial interests of great magnitude, dependent upon the handling and transportation of 

 the White Pine producl^have been built up in Chicago and other northern cities, and the diminu- 

 tion or failure of the supply must inevitably result in the transfer of the capital thus employed to 

 other purposes or to other centers of distribution. In fact, such changes have already been and 

 are now being made with great rapidity, and much of the capital formerly invested in the pine 

 lands and mills of the northern lake region has been transferred to those of the Gulf States and 

 the Pacific coast. 



A multitude of industries is dependent upon a continued and large production of pine lumber, 

 and its failure, though perhaps not threatening such a collapse of business interests as alarmists 

 have pictured, will nevertheless involve serious if not disastrous consequences to the communities 

 relying upon its continuance. The maintenance of an adequate future supply, especially in view 

 of the well-known fact that the existing forests of White Pine can last but a few years longer, at 

 most, is therefore a matter of great economical importance and can not receive too prompt 

 attention. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The White Pine is a tree mainly of northern distribution, although it occurs along the 

 mountain ranges as far south as northern Georgia. It occupies in this distribution the Boreal 

 and Transition life zones, as defined by Dr. C. Hart Merriain. 



1 Michigan and its Resources, Lansing, 1881. 



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