558 



THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



"The annual increase or growth of timber is counterbalanced by the annual waste by windfalls and the natural 

 decay of the old trees. The loss to the forest by fire, is an unknown quantity, but it is quite a large amount, 

 probably 5 per cent, of the whole. The lumbermen waste the log which runs into the top of the tree; this is 

 knotty, but usually sound, and would make good merchantable lumber. It is left in the woods, however, because 

 there is a good deal of work in trimming- the knots and cutting off the limbs. From an ordinary-sized tree four 

 16-foot logs are usually taken, the rest being left. Often this top log is 22 inches in diameter at the butt and will 

 scale from 100 to 120 feet. Loggers are paid so mucli per thousand feet by the lumberman, and the amount they 

 receive is so small that they cannot afford to spend the time to finish up and take out the fifth or last log, which is 

 therefore left in the woods and lost. Nearly one-tenth of the timber, therefore, is left in the woods and lost. The 

 fires about the old choppiugs, or where lumber operations are going on, are principally caused by the carelessness 

 of woodsmen in hunting up laud-lines, or of driving-crews 011 the river in the spring who leave their tires, or by 

 explorers in the forest during the month of May or June leaving their camp fires burning. In all the old cuttings 

 the dried pine boughs and other timber left on the ground get very dry, and' fire once started burns with great 

 rapidity and violence. 



" As a matter of fact, more than half the area from which pine forests have been cut in the northwest is sooner 

 or later burned over. The fire destroys the young trees and changes the nature of the surface of the ground, so that 

 the next crop which comes up consists of briers and poplars, and then hard woods. When pine is cut off or burned 

 it does not come in again, and I have never seen any old choppiugs of pine come up with pine again, even when some 

 trees were left and the ground had not been burned, although where a few large trees only are removed from a 

 pine forest growing on good soil the small trees left standing, if protected from fire, will continue to grow." 



MINNESOTA. 



The Northern Pine Belt finds in Minnesota its extreme western limit in the United States in longitude 

 and its southwestern limit near the forty-sixth degree of latitude. Along its southern and western borders a 

 narrow territory covered with an open growth of hard wood separates the forests of pine from the prairie, which 

 occupies all the southern and western portions of the state. 



The same general features which characterize the piue belt of Wisconsin extend into Minnesota. The pine in 

 the southern portion, confined to gravelly ridges, is scattered through forests of hard wood. Farther north the 

 forest changes in character, the pine being small and of inferior quality. Broad areas of barren land covered with 

 stunted birch, gray pine, and scrub oak occur, while the whole country is thickly studded with lakes and with 

 tamarack and cedar swamps. North of the Mississippi River divide the country is more open; the forest is stunted 

 and of little value, and pine is only found in small, scattered clumps mixed with spruce, tamarack, and yellow cedar. 

 The forest growth here occupies perhaps two-thirds of the rocky or swampy surface of the ground. Its productive 

 capacity is not large, and the northern part of the state is not adapted to lumbering operations. 



The pine has been removed from the principal streams of the state, and that which remains, except in the 

 region tributary to lake Superior and in the vicinity of Eed lake, is now inaccessible or of comparatively inferior 

 quality. The best hard-wood forests of the state, as in Michigan and Wisconsin, have suffered seriously by fires 

 started in abandoned pineries, or in clearing land for agriculture. 



During the census year 250,805 acres of woodland were reported devastated by fire, with an estimated loss of 

 $1,395,110. The largest number of these fires was set in clearing land or by sparks from locomotives. 



The manufacture of cooperage stock to supply the large flouring-inills of the state is an important industry. 

 Manufacturers report a growing scarcity and general deterioration of material. Basswood, elm, and ash are largely 

 used ; oak is inferior in quality to that grown farther east and south. 



The following estimates of the amount of pine timber standing in Minnesota May 31, 1880, were prepared by 

 Mr. H. C.Putnam: 



WHITE PINE (I'inns Strobus). 



In the belt of hard wood extending west and south of the pine region, and consisting of white, red, and burr ' 

 ak, sugar maple, poplar, etc., it is estimated that 3,840,000 acres of forest remain, capable of yielding an average 



