The Forest Industries 69 



is now the State in which the greatest quantity of 

 merchantable pine is to be found. How long it 

 will hold out is uncertain, but hardly more than 

 twenty years, even with somewhat reduced output. 



What will be the consequence of this exhaustion 

 of white pine lumber ? To the States immediately 

 concerned it will mean that thousands of people 

 who have made their living in the pineries and 

 sawmills will have to go elsewhere ; that others 

 who have prospered by supplying the wants of the 

 lumber crews must do the same or go into some 

 other business. To some extent, agriculture will 

 take the place of lumbering as the principal support 

 of this section, but not altogether ; for many large 

 tracts from which the pine has been cut are quite 

 unfit for farming. Even now there are in Michigan 

 and Wisconsin many places, thriving villages and 

 little cities fifteen years ago, which are now almost 

 deserted, with the houses falling into ruin. The 

 pine timber of the neighborhood has all been cut, 

 the sawmill shut down, and with it prosperity 

 disappeared. 



Taking the country as a whole, the consequences 

 of white pine disappearing will not be quite so bad. 

 The place of this material will be taken, for all 

 ordinary purposes, by the various kinds of south- 

 ern pine, especially the long-leaved species (Pinus 

 palustris), commonly called Georgia pine. This 

 has already been done to a considerable extent. 

 This is the reason why there has not been an ap- 

 preciable rise in the price of white pine for lumber, 



