FORESTS OF WISCONSIN 137 



An estimate based on reported average cut per acre wliicli, to he sure, is extremely variable, 

 not only from acre to acre but also from time to time as the standard of marketable logs 

 changes would bring the total of the timber standing ready for the ax to about the following 

 figures as very rough and probably very liberal approximations: 



F.-ct I!. M. 



Southern StatcH 700,000,000,000 



Northern States 500,000, 000, OIX) 



Pacific coast 1,000,000,000,000 



Rooky Mountains 100, 000, 000, (Mid 



' r t"l 2, 300, 000, 000. 000 



To arrive at these figures we have assumed that the amount of timber to be found on the total 

 forest area reported, as given in the preceding table, may be set, as an average for every acre, at 

 4,000 feet B. M. for the Southern States, (.,000 feet for the Northern States, somewhat less than 

 20,000 feet for the Pacific, coast States, and 2,000 feet for the Rocky Mountains. 



We admit that these are only guesses based upon personal observation, conversation with 

 lumbermen, and such incomplete records as could be inspected. It is believed that the figures 

 are leaning toward overstatement rather than the other way. For the purpose of estimating 

 the likelihood of continued supplies these figures will suffice to show that the resource is easily 

 exhaustible. When it is considered that the bulk of the most important supplies (the coniferous 

 trees) is to be found in the far West, thousands of miles away from our centers of civilization, the 

 aspect of the economic conditions is not assuring. 



As to replacement, by young growth, of supplies cut, the possibility of estimate even is pre- 

 cluded, and we can only state iu general that by culling the valuable kinds and leaving the tree 

 weeds to occupy and shade the ground, as is done through all the hard-wood region, the reproduc- 

 tion of valuable species is almost prevented; that the reproduction from the stump in the coppice, 

 which occupies the largest share of the forest area of New England and the Eastern Atlantic 

 States, does not furnish saw material, but only firewood and small-dimension stuff; that much of 

 the young growth of valuable kinds, especially the pines in the South, which, if left undisturbed, 

 would readily and rapidly fill the gaps, is burnt again and again by recurring fires, the same cause 

 sweeping out of existence not only the young growth but the standing timber on the Pacific slope 

 and the Rocky Mountains. 



For a more complete description of a specific area, the State of Wisconsin, its past and present 

 forest conditions and future promises, we refer to the following extracts from Bulletin No. 16 of 

 the Division of Forestry, giving in detail the results of a survey of the forestry conditions and 

 interests of that State by Prof. Filibert Roth, made in 1898. It is a typical picture, which will 

 serve in its general aspects for the entire great lumbering section of the Northwest. 



FOREST CONDITIONS OF WISCONSIN. 

 PHYSIOGRAPHY. 



The part of the State lying north of a line from Green Bay to St. Croix, with the counties of 

 Portage, Wood, and Jackson as southern outposts, contains practically the entire stand of lumber- 

 size timber of both pine and hardwoods in Wisconsin. Nine-tenths of the area presents a broad 

 slope rising from southeast, south, and southwest to a fiat divide which runs eatrt and west close 

 to Lake Superior, and one-tenth is occupied by a steeper slope from this divide to the lake. About 

 43 per cent of this area is formed by an upland plain with low flats, not over 5 per cent is hilly, 

 and the rest is ordinary rolling country with considerable areas of low but steep rolling, " choppy," 

 "pot hole." or " kettle" land. The drainage is mostly excellent in spite of the fact that this area 

 contains over a thousand lakes and is nearly 12 per cent swamp land. Over a large part of the 

 territory it is impossible to get 5 miles away from a driving stream, and nearly all creeks have 

 ample fall. Over 25 per cent of the area is drained by the Chippewa and its tributaries, about 21 

 per cent by the Wisconsin, and 14 per cent by the St. Croix. 



The soil and subsoil of about 50 per cent of this territory is a deep gray loam, more or less 

 mixed with gravel; a deep fertile red clay skirts Lake Superior and sandy lands fringe its southern 

 and southwestern edge, while three large islands of sandy land, one on the upper St. Croix, 

 another on the head waters of the Wisconsin, and the third stretching from the Menomiuee to 



