140 



FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The above estimates of jack pine, spruce, balsam, tamarack, and cedar must be regarded as 

 rough approximations, since the areas stocked with these timbers arc very difficult to ascertain. 



What these supplies of piue have been in the past may be interred from the following calcu- 

 lations, the basis for which have been verified for large areas on the Ohippewa, IHack, Wisconsin, 

 and Wolf rivers, and may be supposed to understate the truth by at least 10 to 15 per cent. 



Proliulili' urii/iiKil xtand and prexent stand of merchantable jihif in Hie Mate, of il'ixmnsiii. 



Of these 129.500,000,000 feet there is approximately 



. Billion feet. 



Standing at present 16. 7 



Cut between 1873 and 1898 <> 



Probable cut 1840 to 1873 ---- > 



Total accounted for 102.7 



Leaving a balance of nearly 27,000,000,000 feet wasted, to which must be added several 

 billions as growth since 1840. Of this enormous waste certainly more than CO per cent, or 

 about 20,000,000,000 feet, is due to fire, the rest falling to storms, old age, and waste in cutting. 

 This is white pine only. 



Besides this injury to pine, fire has killed more than 5,000,000,000 feet of hemlock, at least 

 1,000,000,000 feet of cedar, and several billions of hard woods, besides large quantities of tama- 

 rack, and in addition has killed stands of young sapling pine (under 8 inches diameter) covering 

 many thousand acres which to-day would furnish 5,000,000,000 feet and more of merchantable 

 material. 



TRKSKNT (iUOWTII. 



The amount of timber which at the present time is growing each year on the stocked portion 

 of this area may very safely be placed at about 925,000,000 feet li. M., and is distributed among 

 the several kinds of timber as follows: 



Million feet. 



While and Norway pine 250 



Jack pine 30 



Hemlock . 75 



Tamarack 30 



Cedar 20 



Spruce iind balsam 20 



Hard woods . . 500 



Total 925 



Of this growtli the greater part is balanced by decay or natural waste, which in all wild woods 

 necessarily equals growth when large areas and long periods are considered. For white piue, 

 Norway, and jack pine, also for tamarack and cedar in Wisconsin, nearly half the present growth 

 takes place in forests of young, immature timber, since this largely prevails. With the old pine 

 mixed in the hard-wood forest, and especially with hemlock, decay proceeds faster than growth; 

 for spruce and balsam an increase can hardly be assumed, and even in the hardwoods the growth 

 and decay is practically in a state of equilibrium. 



