556 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



often being covered with grass or cranberry plants. These swamps, originally the beds of lakes, are now tilling up 

 and becoming gradually covered with timber. On the Wolf river the timber was Very heavy. Instances are known 

 of 10,000,000 or 12,000,000 feet of pine lumber having been cut from one section of 640 acres in the Lower "Wolf 

 River region. 



"In the piiie forest, away from the large bodies of mixed hard wood and pine previously described, the general 

 character of the timber is about the same, varying somewhat in different localities, but still possessing the same 

 general characteristics and qualities. Where the pine grows in large solid bodies there are many young trees 

 mixed with the older, and the timber is generally of inferior or lower grade. This is true of pine growing about 

 the head of the Flambeau and Wisconsin rivers, and the Menoinouee river in Wisconsin. Large pine cannot grow 

 and mature upon very poor soil, and where the soil is poor the trees, after reaching a certain size or age, decay and 

 are thrown down by wind or destroyed by fire. The white pine in Wisconsin does not mature except upon the rich 

 gravelly loam of the ridges. 



"The principal points of lumber manufacture at present in Wisconsin are on lake Winuebago, at the cities of 

 Oshkosh and Meuasha, which take largely the product of the Wolf and Fox Eiver pineries ; at Green Bay and 

 Ocouto, which derive their logs principally from the Ocoiito river; at Pei-htigo, on the Peshtigo river; at Marinette, 

 on the Menomonee river; on the Wisconsin river, at Grand Rapids, Stevens Point, Mosiuee, Wausau, and Jenny, 

 the terminus of the Wisconsin Valley railroad, and at Necedah, on the Yellow river. Along the Wisconsin Central 

 railroad, from Junction City to Ashland, are mills of more or less capacity at every station, the most important being 

 at Ogema, Ashland, Medford, and Unity. Upon the Black river the principal manufacturing points are La Crosse 

 and Black Eiver Falls. On the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha railway, at Fairchild, are the large 

 mills of Foster & Co., who are engaged in manufacturing the timber lying between the Black river and the waters of 

 the Chippewa, included in the Chippewa estimate. On the Chippewa river the largest manufacturing establishment 

 is the Mississippi Eiver Logging Company, composed of fifteen of the heaviest concerns upon the Mississippi river. 

 These firms obtain their stock mostly from the Chippewa river, the logs being driven down to its mouth into what 

 is called the 'Beef Slough boom', where they are separated and formed into rafts and towed to the different mills 

 below. This company cuts on the Chippewa about 40!>,000,000 feet a year. The principal manufacturing points 

 on the Chippewa deriving their logs from its basin are situated at Wanbeck, Dunnville, Menomonee, Meridian, and 

 Eau Claire, where several large and important manufacturing establishments are located. Higher up the river 

 the Badger State Lumber Company and the Grand Island Lumber Company are located, and at Chippewa Falls, 

 the county-seat of Chippewa county, the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company has a large water-mill, with a 

 capacity of 65,000,000 feet a year, besides several smaller concerns. The railroad extending from Chippewa Falls 

 eastward through Chippewa and Clark counties into Marathon county, ami joining the Wisconsin Central railroad 

 at Abbottsford, passes through a hard-wood country. Several firms are already established upon tins line and 

 have commenced the manufacture of staves and the production of hard-wood lumber for wagons, etc., and are 

 developing a large business. This road runs through one of the finest bodies of hard wood in the state, containing 

 large amounts of oak and maple growing on a fine soil suitable for farming. The Chippewa River country now 

 contains the largest body of white pine of the best quality left, in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 

 It is, however, being very rapidly cut. 



"It is found in going north toward the heads of the streams that the timber stands more in large groves r 

 and that there is less hard-wood timber mixed with the pine. When the loggers attack these forests they cut 

 clean as they go, the timber being of more uniform size and age, and there being less undergrowth than farther 

 down the streams. It is found, also, that the pineries on the heads of the streams do not hold out as well or yield 

 as large an amount of timber as those farther south, where the forests border on the prairie lauds and where the- 

 pines grow on better soil. This is true both of the Wisconsin and of the Michigan pineries. The poorer soils in 

 the northern portion of the state do not grow and mature the large sapling forests of pine found in the southern 

 portions of the pine belt. So that, while there is still a large area which has not been cut and which may appear 

 inexhaustible, yet, owing to the fact that the timber lies more in groves, and that there are here wide extents of 

 tamarack and cedar, swamps and t;pen spaces, the ground will be cut over more rapidly than when the forest was 

 first entered. This is true of the pine standing upon all the streams of northern Wisconsin in the Menomonee 

 district the Wisconsin, the Chippewa, Saint Croix and on the southern shores of lake Superior. Commencing at 

 Menomonee, on the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha railway, and running west through the 30 miles 

 of ' big woods', large mills for the manufacture of hard- wood timber and of what little scattered pine there is left are 

 established at Kuapp, Wilson, Hersey, Woodville, and Baldwin stations. The principal manufactories in the Saint 

 Crojx district are at Hudson, on the Willow river, and at Stilhvater, in Minnesota, which receives its logs from the 

 Saint Croix, in Wisconsin, and which, therefore, should be treated as one of the Wisconsin pinery manufactories. 

 At Somerset, on Apple river, there is one mill ; there is one at Osceola, upon the Saint Croix, and upon the Northern 

 Wisconsin railroad, which runs through the Saint Croix division; at Clayton, Granite Lake, and Shell Lake are 

 large mills. There are also other mills along this road on the Lake Superior shore. There are mills of small 

 eapacity at Superior City, Bayfield, and Ashland ; the latter receive their logs by the Wisconsin Central railroad 

 from the Bad River pinery. 



