28 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



which are fractional) bordering on and south of Crooked 

 lake and Lac La Croix as are shown by the field notes of 

 the government surveyors to be third or fourth rate. 



IN THE PINE WOODS. 



I went on the igih of April, a warm, clear day, over 

 the Duluth and Northeastern Railway, from Cloquet to 

 Rush Lake, a place in township 54, range 15, about 30 

 miles due north of Duluth. Extensive logging operations 

 in the original pine forest have been going on for some 

 time and will continue uninterruptedly summer and 

 winter. This pine region lies between the Cloquet and 

 White Face rivers, occupying a moderate elevation or 

 ridge four or five miles wide and extending about three 

 townships in length east and west. It is well watered by 

 the tributaries of the two rivers mentioned, and at time 

 of the visit at high stage. The soil is a dark loam and 

 the land will mostly be available for agriculture when the 

 timber is removed. A great deal of the pine is mixed 

 with birch and other hard wood. There are some swamps 

 thinly covered with dwarf spruce. There is also consid- 

 erable cedar and tamarac. 



The pine is nearly all white and many of the trees 

 about 200 years old. The forest is indeed magnificent. 

 I learned of one 40 acre tract that yielded two million 

 feet board measure, and of the value standing at the time 

 it was cut of $16,000. I was credibly informed of a sec- 

 tion (640 acres) in this forest and which of course was 

 exceptional for which $110,000 was refused three years 

 ago, and which cost the original purchaser from the 

 United States, possibly 20 years ago, $1.25 an acre. 



On the 20th instant I went over a small part of the 

 Fond Du Lac reservation, which lies west of Cloquet, and 

 from which a large growth of pine timber was cut about 



