68 North American Forests and Forestry 



treated, we will have to impress upon the reader 

 the importance of the principle that forests, unless 

 for protective purposes, ought not to be maintained 

 on land which could be utilized in a different way 

 with greater profit to the owner. Therefore, it is 

 not to be regretted if a region of great agricultural 

 capabilities ceases to supply lumber and becomes a 

 farming country. But it is otherwise where an area 

 is denuded of its merchantable timber and hence- 

 forth lies as an idle waste, stocked at best with scrub 

 and inferior species of trees weeds, as the forester 

 calls them. Unfortunately, a large part of what 

 was once magnificent white pine forest is now in 

 that condition. The eastern part of the white 

 pine area, Maine and the rest of New England, 

 New York, Pennsylvania, has long ago ceased to 

 play a large part in the pine lumber market. The 

 bulk of the white pine now produced comes from 

 the Great Lakes country. But here, also, the end 

 is near. In Michigan, where, twenty years ago, 

 Saginaw was the centre of the greatest lumber in- 

 dustry in the world, the year 1882 marked the cli- 

 max of the output. A rapid decline followed, and 

 to-day Michigan pine lumbering on a large scale is 

 practically at an end. Wisconsin reached its great- 

 est output just ten years after Michigan. It still 

 produces a very large quantity every year, though 

 much less than in 1892. According to the most 

 reliable estimates, it may still be an important fac- 

 tor in the pine lumber market for ten years, and 

 then the end will have come here also. Minnesota 



