FORESTS OF WISCONSIN. 



139 



I'KKSKNT SIMM']. IKS. 



Considering present supplies of pine, over 80 per cent of which are owned by lumbermen, it 

 must be borne in mind that in spite of ninny years of logging but few townships of the better 

 stocked regions, outside of settlements, arc logged clean, and counties like Chippcwa, Clark, 

 Wood, and Marathon still continue to furnish large i|iiantities of pine logs of all sixes, for it is not 

 so much a lack of good logs as the fact that of late everything is cut clean which has reduced the 

 average size of log to nearly half what it was twenty years ago. It is especially the fragmentaiy 

 condition of the forest which makes general or wholesale estimates difficult, and causes the 

 opinions on pine supplies to vary within such wide limits. -Most men know little about what 

 their neighbors have," and "the man whose pine supply is nearly at an end, and who finds it hard 

 to buy more stumpage, thinks that everybody shares his trouble." These two statements, vari- 

 ously expressed, may be heard in many places, and fully indicate the difficulty. 



The following figures of merchantable supplies still standing, secured by the methods above 

 indicated, are probably quite near the truth, though the total appears still some what conservative: 



Stamlini/ i>hn>, Iicml/ick, and hardwood saw timber in tlie-8lale of Wisconsin i 1S98. 



a Ban Claire is only considered for its pine and St. Croix and Fierce only for hardwoods the three counties being really outside of the 

 scope of this work. 



The detailed estimates given by woodsmen of hemlock and still more of hard woods, vary 

 much more than those of pine. Lack of experience in hard wood, custom of estimating only certain 

 kinds, and discriminating selections in the hardwood markets, which consider only the better 

 sizes or qualities, have led to great differences in figures on yield. The general results above 

 given are very conservative for both hemlock and hard woods in spite of the fact that they represent 

 rather the higher than the average estimates. A more correct view of present supplies may be 

 obtained from a study of the following figures, in which all the wood supplies are arranged in 

 three classes, a portion of the hemlock which, at present rating, is not real saw timber being thrown 

 together with the cedar and part of tamarack and jack pine as a second class. Of these figures 

 it may be said that of the 9^,000,000 cords of hardwood fully one-third, or 30,000,000 cords, an 

 equivalent of 15,000,000,000 feet B. M., might still be placed with saw timber. 



Wood supplies daijied. 



