FOKE8TS OF WISCONSIN. 



141 



PRKSKNT KXI'LOITATION AN'I> MAIiKET. 



At the present time logging of pine is going on in nearly every part of this territory. The 

 average annual cut for the last ten years has been about 3,000,000,000 feet; and pine land, pine 

 stum page, and logs find a ready market everywhere. 



Hemlock is peeled to quite an extent, the bark being mostly used by local tanneries; small 

 quantities are cut to lumber, chiefly dimension stuff, and considerable quantities are converted 

 into railway ties, mining timber, etc., and also into pulp, but on the whole this material is still 

 very much underrated. 



The hardwoods are logged and sawn mostly on a small scale. Several hundred small mills 

 are cutting hardwoods, mostly into lumber, much into special sixes and shapes, and large quantities 

 are used for cooperage and wagon stock. Exact figures of the total annual cut in hardwoods are 

 wanting, but 500,000,000 feet is a safe estimate. Spruce and to a less extent balsam are bought 

 for pulp; cedar finds ready market and is extensively cut everywhere for posts, poles, ties, and 

 shingle timber, but tamarack still remains tabooed, and even sappy Norway poles for piling are 

 preferred to this much superior material so that but little tamarack is cut. 



From tables just published by the Northwestern Lumberman the following approximation of 

 consumption of lumber is derived. This does not take into account all the scatterred domestic 

 consumption and remains as all such statistics necessarily do, somewhat below the truth: 



White pine, Norway pine, and liemhn-k lumber rut in ll'isconxin in 1897. 



n < hie-thinl "I totaleut reported credited to Wisconsin. l> One-half of total cut reported credited to Wisconsin. 



c Proportion of cut credited to Wisconsin. 



NOIK. -Of lite above tolal cut. l^."t,Oi:o,UOO feet wa.s hemlock. Besides this there is more than oiie-iiiiarter billion feet of hanlwooiU 

 recorded from mills, which can safely be increased to half :i billion for unrecorded cuts at small country mills in the woods. 



1 I'TUKK OK J'INK MILLING. 



How long the present supply of pine will last is impossible to foretell. As the price of 

 stumpage. increases and the number of owners (and with this the opportunity to buy pine) 

 decreases, one mill after another drops out. With the concentration of ownership a reduction in 

 output will be the consequence which will continue to the last (if a "last" there be), so that even 

 the present stand is likely not to be cut out in eight to ten years, as might be inferred from a 

 comparison of present supply and cut, but may easily last twenty and more years. 



FOREST ANI> COMMONWEALTH. 



The importance of the forest for the State of Wisconsin is very great, and the statement that 

 "the forest industries have, built every foot of railway and wagon road, nearly every town, school, 

 and church, and cleared half of the improved land in north Wisconsin," is by no means an 

 extravagant exaggeration. 



In 1890, according to the census, the forest products at first hand, including lumber and all 

 sawn timber; ties, hewn and round timber (not saw logs), poles, piling, posts, etc.; cooperage, 

 furniture and wagon stock in the rough, and not including tan bark, pulp wood, and the immense 

 quantities of timber used for firewood, fencing, and farm use and construction, represented the 

 enormous sum of $40,400,000. 



If to this is added only $10,000,000 as representing the value of the wood for home use, fuel, 

 fencing, Farm construction, etc., the products of the forest at first hand equal in value one third 

 of the products of agriculture. And to these alone they are really comparable, since in most 



