Notes of the North Woods 



MEN engaged in the lumber business expect that during 

 the 1913 season there will be a strong market and a 

 good demand, with the consequent result that prices 

 will be high. It is claimed, with certainty, that the state 

 supply of lumber will fall short of the average by several 

 million feet. This is due to two reasons. First, the scarcity 

 of snows in the woods. Second, the scarcity of woodsmen. 

 Unfavorable conditions in almost every part of the state 

 where logging is in progress will tend to curtail seriously 

 the supply, and in addition to this the stocks of all mills, 

 especially in this part of the country are unusually low. James 

 McDonald of the Mullery-McDonald lumber company of Duluth 

 is authority for the statement that his company have sold 40 

 per cent of their cut ahead of the saw. And it is said that 

 similar conditions confront almost every other large mill in 

 the state. 



Conditions in the logging sections of other states are just 

 as bad as they are in Minnesota. Heavy snows in the West 

 have made logging extremely difficult while heavy rains in 

 the South have made the industry almost prohibitive, while 

 in Michigan and Wisconsin, where snow is an essential, its 

 scarcity is a serious drawback. 



It is expected that the mills in St. Louis county will not get 

 more than 400,000,000 or 500,000,000 feet of logs for cutting, 

 although they could handle and dispose of a great deal more. 



According to advices from Deer River, the lumberjacks 

 have already begun tc return from the woods. Lack of snow 

 is said to have cut short the season in the camps, and the 

 men are returning with only small "stakes." It has been a 

 bad winter, according to the Duluth Herald, for "jumping" 

 and that makes it bad for both the men and the employers. 



Samuel Graham, junior forestry student at the state for- 

 est school, has been selected as manager of the commissary 

 department for the summer class at Lake Itasca. Members 



