THE POLYPORACEAE OF WISCONSIN. 3 



aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), and at rare intervals an iron- 

 wood (Ostrya Virginica Willd.)- 



In the region around Star Lake the same kinds of trees were found 

 but the proportion of deciduous trees is greater. Birches, poplar and 

 scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea Muench) make up a very large part of 

 the forest here. In some districts the forest is made up entirely of 

 deciduous trees, with here and there a white or red pine and a few 

 dwarfed firs. The swamps in this region are covered with spruce, 

 tamarack and arbor vitae. 



About Shanagolden, Ashland County, there are very few pines, 

 some hemlock, and in the swamps, spruce, tamarack, willow and ar- 

 bor vitae are found. The bulk of the forest here consists of red birch 

 (Betula nigra), elm, (Ulmus Americana L.) and hard maple. In all 

 of these districts the standing timber, the new growth, burned areas 

 and fallen trees were carefully studied, since all of these furnish data 

 as to the prevalence and destructiveness of timber diseases. 



The age of the trees in the uncut forests is quite variable. In the 

 older stands, the Norway pine often attains an age of one hundred to 

 cne hundred and fifty years, while large white pine stumps have two hun- 

 dred rings of growth. Some of the largest of these trees have diameters 

 of from twenty-five to thirty-six inches. The firs and spruce seldom- 

 reach a diameter of twelve inches at ages of not more than ninety- 

 five years. Arbor vitae were measured at Shanagolden that had di- 

 ameters of fifteen and sixteen inches at ages probably over one hundred 

 fifty years. (As the center was decayed entirely in these trees their 

 precise ages could not be determined.) These trees were seldom more 

 than fifty or sixty feet in height. The birch, as in the sandy soil of 

 Oneida and Vilas counties, was scrubby and not good for lumbering 

 purposes, rarely exceeding from eight to eleven inches in diameter, 

 and ranging in age from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty 

 years. In the much richer soil of Ashland county, the red birch is, 

 considered one of the most valuable of the trees for lumbering pur- 

 poses. Here the trunks often attain diameters of from one and one' 

 half to two feet at ages not over one hundred twenty-five years. The 

 elm grows very large here and is very valuable. The maple never 

 acquires a great size or high age in any of these counties and much; 

 of it cannot be used for lumbering purposes, for reasons to be men- 

 tioned later. It acquires the largest size and best shape in Ashlandi 

 county, the largest ones here measuring about fifteen inches in di- 

 ameter and from fifty to sixty feet in height. The ages of these trees 

 vary from eighty to one hundred years. Much of the maple at Sha- 

 nagolden is cut into cord wood. Tamarack and spruce rarely attain. 



