OTHER RESOURCES OF MICHIGAN 71 



ment. A recent war-time estimate by the Forest 

 Service (not very close, it is admitted) judged 58 

 per cent of the standing timber — then put at -iS^iOOO,- 

 000,000 feet B. M.— to be hardwoods, of which 10 

 per cent was believed to be oak, -45 maple, 15 beech, 

 10 birch, 7 elm, 6 basswood, and 2 per cent ash. 

 Of the total stand of softwoods, about 5 per cent 

 was estimated to be white pine, 1 Norway pine, 6 

 jack pine, 66.5 hemlock (formerly despised but now 

 precious because nothing better can be obtained at 

 a moderate price), 5 spruce, 8 tamarack, 6 white 

 cedar, and 2.5 per cent balsam fir. 



The estimated forest area of Michigan is 3,500,000 

 acres. There is in reality no accurate estimate of 

 the amount of standing timber in Michigan. The 

 Bureau of Corporation's Report on the lumber in- 

 dustry (1914) put the total stand in i\Iichigan at 

 47,600,000,000 board feet, including 2,000,000,000 

 feet of white and Xorway pine, 15,000,000,000 feet 

 of hemlock, 5,200,000,000^ feet of other conifers, and 

 25,400,000,000 feet of hardwoods. The Bureau was 

 not assured of the correctness of its figures, and the 

 United States Forest Service, in its report on timber 

 depletion in response to a Senate Eesolution (1920), 

 was so doubtful of its estimates that it did not ven- 

 ture to give separate statistics for each of the Lake 

 states, but presented a combined rating for these 

 states as follows: Eastern hardwoods, 69,350,000,000 

 feet; eastern softwoods, 40,760,000,000 feet. The 

 most detailed figures on this subject are buried in 

 the files of the State Board of Tax Commissioners 



