MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



WEXFORD LUMBER NOTES. 



Smith & Staples, of Cadillac, who have mills 

 at Selma and Park Lake, are- seeking a new 

 supply of timber. They have enough in the lo- 

 cality of Cadillac to last them three years, but 

 finding lumbering a profitable and pleasant 

 business they will seek a new source of supply. 

 Mr. Smith is now in the upper peninsula to 

 close a deal for 5,000 acres of hardwood. 



The Wexford Lumber Company will not be 

 sorry when the snow lays deep on the ground 

 up a'round Buckley. Until that time it will be 

 unable to push its lumbering operations, as it 

 has to sleigh haul its logs. Joseph S. Camp- 

 be41, of the firm, has closed a deal for a tract 

 of timber near Cheboygan. 



Murphy & Diggins have moved their camp 

 from Selma to a point near Boon. During the 

 winter they will cut over a large part of 

 twenty-two "forties." The land lies contigu- 

 ous to" the Ann Arbor railroad, and sleigh haul- 

 ing will not be so long as in some other years. 



UPPER PENINSULA LOGGING. 



Lake Linden lumbermen are making exten- 

 preparations for the re-opening of their 

 camp and within a short time, almost all lum- 

 bering operations carried on by these contrac- 

 tors will be resumed. Eddy & Belheumer, 

 owners of a ~;iw mill at Lake Linden, will 

 commence operations along the shore of Lake 

 Superior, and arrangements have been made 

 for the cut. Frank Buschell will again operate 

 in Keweenaw County near Copper Harbor and 

 the usual large force of men will be employed 

 there. Burmie Contin will open camps on the 

 shore of Torch Lake during the winter, while 

 several others expect to cut along the Copper 

 Range railroad. 



Little difficulty has been experienced in se- 

 curing workmen for the woods, and contrac- 

 tors report that the market is almost overflow- 

 ing. Since the closing of the mines in the 

 west, many laborers who formerly located in 

 Michigan have returned, to accept such posi- 

 tions as may be obtained. 



Loggers are gradually conducting and oper- 

 ating camps a greater distance in the woods, 

 and each year, the camps nearer the towns are 

 being deserted. Evidence of this may be 

 found a few miles from Lake Linden where the 

 old camps have become deserted through a 

 scarcity of timber. The usual number of cord 

 wood camps will be operated this winter, 

 preparations for which have also been made. 



WEALTH FROM FORESTS. 



Official figures recently compiled by the Sax- 

 on Government for the year 1906 demonstrate 

 a net revenue of $2.126,037 obtained from the 

 cultivation of 443,10.") acres of governmental 

 forest land, an area of which 424,246 acres rep- 

 resent- land covered with trees or soil desig- 

 nated for rotational foresting. The total area 

 of the kingdom of Saxony amounts to 5.789 

 English square miles, of which almost one-half 

 is covered with private and governmental for- 

 ests. The State Treasury places the latter as 

 its highest revenue producer after the State 

 railway, and exceeding the income from all 

 other sources, taxation included. The total 

 quantity of timber cut during the year is esti- 

 mated at 1,231,472 solid cubic yards, 210,947 

 cubic yards representing wood used for fuel 

 only, and 1,020.525 sold for all other purposes. 

 To this must be added a yield in brushwood, 

 cut and sold for fuel principally, of 190.415 

 cubic yards, raising th etotal quantity of timber 

 and brushwood cut and sold in 1906 to 1,421,887 

 cubic yards, for which the sum of $3,374,385 was 

 obtained, which amount was still increased by 

 additional revenue from the leasing of mead- 

 ows, hunting privileges and other rights to the 

 total of $3,483,616. 



Deducting from this total figure the cost of 

 forest cultivation (with salaries and wages of 

 the entire service included), amounting to 

 $1,357,580, the net profit of $2,126,037 was 

 added to the state treasury in 1906. There is 

 nothing unusual in this result, as the ten pre- 

 ceding years show equally high figures, a few 



slightly exceeding the revenue of 1906, others 

 being lower in a very small degree. The same 

 comparison applies to the area cultivated and 

 timber obtained in ten years. 



Similar results have been achieved in other 

 German states by systematic forest cultivation. 

 Xearly 50,000 square miles of German soil, rep- 

 resenting about one-fourth of Germany, have 

 been adapted to foresting, the value of the 

 wood gained therefrom being estimated at 

 $60,000,000 per year. 



BALM OF GILEAD TREES VALUABLE. 

 As evidence of the decreasing timber sup- 

 plies of the upper lake region the fact is inter- 

 esting that the much-despised Balm of Gilead 

 tree is being put to commercial use. It makes 

 good material for box lumber, it has been dis- 

 covered, and there is at least one concern in 

 Northern Michigan which is putting it on the 

 market for this particular purpose. This con- 

 cern is a lumbering firm from Saginaw which 

 has established a sawmill at Maxton on Drum- 

 mond island/ at the mouth of St. Mary's river, 

 Lake Huron, and is cutting large quantities of 

 the timber. It is only within the past year that 

 Balm of Gilead has come to be considered of 

 value. The timber is "soggy" when cut, and 

 largely for that reason it has been held prac- 

 tically worthless. However, experiments have 

 shown that when properly seasoned it becomes 

 much like basswood and can be used for much 

 the same purpose. Nearly all of the product ol 

 the Drummond island plant is being disposed 

 of to a Milwaukee company, which is finding 

 the lumber highly desirable. 



BAY CITY LUMBER RECEIPTS. 



From the opening of navigation to October 

 1, the receipts of lumber by lake at Bay City 

 aggregated 48,037,965 feet, and at Saginaw they 

 were 33,411,113 feet, the combined figures 

 showing receipts in the river of 81,449.080 feet. 

 The principal firms receiving lumber by water 

 are E. B. Foss & Co., Mershon, Schuette, Par- 

 ker & Co., Bradley, Miller & Co., Handy Bros, 

 and Thos. Jackson Co. Other firms receiving 

 a few cargoes each during the season are Qua- 

 ker Shade Roller Co., Booth & Boyd, E. J. 

 Vance Box Co., Walworth & Neville, A. C. 

 White, E. Germain, Fuesternburg Bros. Near- 

 ly all of these firms bring lumber in by rail 

 also. 



WHITE'S TIMBER HOLDINGS. 



Some time ago a long article was published 

 in the papers of this section of the state to the 

 effect that the White interests had disposed of 

 their timber tracts to the east of Gaylord o a 

 syndicate for a considerable sum of money 

 amounting to several million dollars. 



This report, it can authortatively stated, by 

 The Times, is not true and that the White 

 Company still owns the vast tract of land be- 

 tween Gaylord and Alpena. 



It is declared in certain circles that there is a 

 first rate good prospect that the road will be 

 constructed from Gaylord to Alpena and that 

 before very long as the White Company un- 

 questionably will not permit this vast tract of 

 timber land to remain undeveloped or unpro- 

 ductive for a much longer period. 



That the chances for a railroad across the 

 sixty odd miles of territory to the east, some 

 of which is numbered among the finest land in 

 the northern section and some of the finest 

 timber tracts that the state ever possessed, are 

 better at the present time than they ever have 

 been before is really a true statement now. 



The Times called up W. II. White, of Boyne 

 City, and asked him to make a statement about 

 the matter, and Mr. White said that the com- 

 pany still owned the lumber tracts and that 

 no sale of them had "fallen through" as had 

 been reported. All there was in this he said 

 was that a certain party had approached them 

 saying that he could secure several million 

 dollars for this timber land. Mr. White said 

 they told him to go ahead and sell it but he 

 failed to do so. 



Regarding the matter of the extension of the 



railroad to Alpena Mr. White said there was 

 nothing that could be said at this time and that 

 he was not prepared to say what developments 

 might be made in the future. Otsego County 

 Times. 



BIGGEST INDIVIDUAL LOGGER. 



While he will conduct no camps of his own, 

 the biggest individual logging operator in Up- 

 per Michigan this season will be Andrew 

 Bjorkman, of Iron Mountain. He has con- 

 tracts to put in ten million feet of mixed tim- 

 ber, and will operate through jobbers. Already 

 eleven camps have been arranged for. About 

 250 men will be furnished employment. Wages 

 are maintained at the highest plane attained in 

 many years, and with all other costs likewise 

 at the top notch, a considerable number of 

 jobbers in various portions of the peninsula 

 have as yet made no preparations to open 

 camps this fall. 



TO BUILD NEW MILL. 



It is said that it is the intention of the Chi- 

 cago Lumber Company to commence the erec- 

 tion at Manisfique of a large planing mill, sim- 

 ilar to the one soon to be occupied by the 

 Goodwillie Brothers box factory, sometime in 

 the near future. The mill will employ a con- 

 siderable number of men and will be used to 

 supply the company's retail lumber trade. To 

 those calamity prophets who have been fore- 

 telling Manistique's commercial downfall this 

 will be a sad blow as it means that the Chicago 

 Lumber Company instead of closing out its 

 holdings there will spend during the next year 

 many thousands of dollars in improvements 

 and will be in the field for a number of years 

 to come. 



ODD OLD MISSOURI RAILROAD. 



It is understood that plans are well under 

 way for an extension both east and west of 

 the Cassville & Western railroad. The line 

 is one of the oldest in Missouri. For years 

 it was known as the gravity road, as the 

 train from Exeter to Cassville formerly made 

 the trip with no power save gravity. It has 

 four employes. The conductor is also brake- 

 man, flagman, porter, mail clerk and express 

 messenger. No tickets are sold over the line. 

 The two-cent fare has never been put in force. 

 The wages of all the employes are paid by 

 the month. The engineer is also master me- 

 chanic, while the fireman is the chief boiler- 

 maker of the system. 



No train orders have ever been issued, there 

 being no telegraph operators on the line. Never 

 in its history has a serious accident occurred. 

 There are no intermediate stations on the 

 line, and it enjoys the unique distinction of 

 being the most accommodating line in Mis- 

 souri. The equipment consift" of two engines 

 and three passenger coaches. 



The Oliver Iron Mining Company will soon 

 send a crew to the woods, west of Michi- 

 gamme, where operations were conducted last 

 winter. It has not yet been decided who will 

 be placed in charge of the work the coming 

 winter, but an experienced man will be given 

 the job. A crew of between sixty and seventy 

 men was employed last year, and it is ex- 

 pected that as many will be on the job this 

 winter. The company has comfortable camps 

 in the district, and good roads were put in, 

 so that there will be no delay in starting after 

 the men are engaged. The company has suffi- 

 cient timber there to keep a crew busy for 

 two or three winters. 



An important deal in stumpage is reported 

 from the eastern end of the upper peninsula. 

 The Lake Superior Iron & Chemical Company 

 has sold to D. N. McLeod, an extensive oper- 

 ator in lumber, all the trees on its holdings 

 in the vicinity of Rexton, Mackinac county, that 

 are suitable for conversion into saw logs. The 

 purchase adds considerably to Mr. McLeod's 

 reserve and gives him timber sufficient for a 

 four years' supply for his mill at Rexton. The 

 logging: of the tract will be started this fall. 



