THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



551 



pine trees left by the logger; they have robbed the soil of its fertility, ami made it unfit to produce another 

 crop of pine until the growth and decay of generations of other plants shall have restored its lost constituents. 

 In the dense, unwilled forest, on the other hand, fires, although often destructive, are less dangerous in the absence 

 of dead material to feed the flames than when the ground is strewn with dead branches, tops, and resinous chips. 



During the census year only 23S,271 acres of woodland were reported destroyed by fire, with an estimated loss 

 of s9S5,9S5. Of the 207 fires reported, 101 were traced to (ires set in clearing land for agricultural purposes, and 

 which escaped to the forests; 59 to hunters, 43 to sparks from locomotives, .'! to smokers, while only 1 was reported 

 set by Indians. 



The hard-wood forests of Michigan have long afforded abundant material for large and important industries 

 engaged in the production of cooperage stock, handles, oars, agricultural implements, excelsior, wood pulp, etc. 

 Manufacturers, especially in the southern part of the state, now report, however, a scarcity and general deterioration 

 of stock. The best oak timber has been everywhere culled to supply the wants of railroads or the demands of the 

 Canadian market. Elm, bass, and other soft woods, which a few years ago were considered of little value, are now 

 in great demand and are fast disappearing, except from regions remote from railroads. Much hard wood, especially 

 in the southern peninsula, has been destroyed by fire, or, if not destroyed, rendered almost worthless for 

 manufacturing purposes by partial burning. 



Next to Vermont and New York, Michigan produces a larger amount of maple sugar than any other state. 

 During the year 1879 3,423,149 pounds were manufactured in the state. 



STATISTICS OF GROWING TIMBER. 



The following estimates of the merchantable timber standing in Michigan May 31, 1880, were prepared by 

 Mr. H. C. Putnam, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, with the assistance, in the lower peninsula especially, of Mr. G. W. 

 Hotchkiss. These, as well as the estimates of the timber resources of Wisconsin and Minnesota, were obtained 

 by compiling the results of actual surveys, and have been further verified by a large number of persons familiar 

 with the forests in the different regions of these states. It must not, however, be forgotten that the figures given 

 represent estimates, and not facts. -Statistics of the volume of any growing crop are difficult to obtain and 

 always liable to considerable error, and the forest, from its very nature and the extent over which it is spread, 

 presents greater difficulties to the collector of statistics of productive capacity than the more compact and more 

 easily studied crops of the field. The estimates of pine include all trees 12 inches in diameter 24 feet from the 

 ground. Since they were prepared the scarcity of white pine has changed the methods of the lumberman, and 

 trees are now generally estimated and cut as small as 8 inches in diameter 24 feet from the ground. If the amount 

 of standing pine had been estimated upon the 8-inch basis it would have added (roughly) 10 per cent, to Mr. Putnam's 

 figures. Small bodies of pine remote from streams no doubt exist in different parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and 

 Minnesota, in the aggregate of some commercial importance, which are not included in these estimates. The 

 following figures, however, are believed to represent with as great accuracy as is attainable the productive capacity 

 of the northwestern pineries. They cover the entire region, and these pine forests now contain no great body of 

 unexplored timber, an unknown factor in the country's lumber supply: 



WHITE PINE {Pinna Strobus). 



