popple. They are starting factories. Small portable sawmills 

 are springing up. The poplar is being used. Predictions are 

 that millions of feet will be cut this year. 



Demand Is Increasing. 



The need for the utilization of a cheaper wood is seen at 

 a glance when the rise in the price of white pine is consid- 

 sidered. Thirty years ago white pine land sold for $2.50 per 

 acre. There was approximately 25,000 board feet per acre. 

 This made the price of stumpage about 10 cents per 1,000 

 feet. Twenty years ago the price had risen to one dollar 

 per 1,000 feet. Last year the price received at state sales 

 was $9 per 1,000 feet. A rise from lOc to $9 per 1,000 feet 

 within 30 years. 



The same story can be told with regard to Norway pine. 

 Ten years ago a homesteader would not settle on land that 

 was covered with Norway pine. Last year, at the state sales, 

 the price for Norway was about $8 per 1,000 feet. 



What is true of white pine and Norway is also true of 

 tamarack, cedar, spruce, Wisconsin hemlock, Southern gum, 

 cypress. 



While the price was rising rapidly for all these other woods 

 there remained unused in Minnesota millions of feet of pop- 

 ple, or poplar. There are approximately 1,000,000 acres of 

 popple timber in the state, according to the findings of Mr. 

 Buhler. It averages about 2,000 feet per acre making a grand 

 total of about 2,000,000,000 board feet. Much of it is in the 

 northwestern part of the state. 



There were many reasons, says Mr. Buhler, why this pop- 

 ple was not utilized. First, there has always been a super- 

 stition connected with popple, a superstition that has been 

 hard to overcome. French-Canadian lumberjacks would not 

 sleep in shanties built of poplar logs. If on a "drive" they 

 tied onto a popple log, it was looked upon as a bad omen. 



Had a Bad Name. 



The bad name that poplar had dates back a great many 

 years. In Scotland the superstition prevailed that Christ was 



