A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 11 



continue to remain barren wastes, and that of the 8,000,000 

 acres of cut-over lands in north Wisconsin not one-tenth is 

 stocked with growing timber. And the swamp woods have no 

 future, for it is here among the tall marsh grass and masses of 

 dead poles that most of the fires start. 



" In this way an area now nearing 8,000,000 acres, and 

 rapidly increasing in extent, remains unproductive. Counting 

 only 20 cubic feet, or 100 feet B. M., as the annual growth per 

 acre on lauds entirely without any care or protection agains^ 

 fire, the State of Wisconsin loses annually by this condition of 

 things 800,000,000 feet B. M. of marketable saw timber; nor 

 is this all, for even with primitive management this amount 

 could be largely increased. 



" The assertion that this land is needed for agriculture, 

 that it soon will all be settled, and that even the sandy soils 

 produce potatoes and are profitably farmed by improved meth- 

 ods, may well be answered by a concrete case. The old settled 

 counties Waushara, Adams, and Marquette have an aggregate 

 area of 1,144,000 acres; their improved land amounts to 

 340,000 acres, leaving fully 70 per cent, or 804,000 acres, in 

 brush and waste lands. In 1895 these counties supported wood 

 industries whose product amounted to the pitiful sum of 

 $13,000, and probably the material for these was imported, in- 

 stead of having 80,000,000 feet of pine to sell, which under 

 simple methods of care might have been derived from these 

 brush and swamp lands.'' 



It will be seen that in this preliminary survey and report an 

 important and valuable contribution has been made, which has 

 opened the problem for further information, demonstrating 

 meanwhile the extent of the interests that are involved in its 

 practical study. The Forestry Commission of Wisconsin fully 

 realizes this, and is actively at work with plans for the 

 future. 



The similarity of conditions in the two States and the 

 solid progress already made in Wisconsin suggest that we can 

 probably do no better at present than to adopt substantially 



