drain on the wealth of the state is to be stopped. 



Few people seem to realize what the loss to the 

 state is. Already we are importing half the lumber 

 we use. That means at least 400,000,000 feet, and it 

 means thaf we are paying out around $4,000,000 a year 

 for freight and about $12,000,000 a year more for the 

 lumber. $16,000,000 a year flowing steadily out of the 

 state and it will not be very long, unless some vigor- 

 ous measures are taken at once, till the stream will 

 have increased to $30,000,000. 



Only 15 years ago we produced over three times as 

 much as we used! 



This would not be so bad if the lands which once 

 produced the timber were now producing some more 

 valuable crop. But they are not. The bulk of them 

 are producing absolutely nothing. Of course the land 

 men tell us that these cut-over lands will all very 

 shortly become converted into farms and will be sup- 

 porting a dense population. There is not the slight- 

 est possibility of this. New York state with an area 

 little more than half that of Minnesota and a popu- 

 lation of ten millions has now after three hundreds 

 years of settling still 4,000,000 acres of forest on her 

 farms exclusive of the mountain regions of the Adi- 

 rondacks and the Catskills. That area alone is large 

 enough to grow all the timber Minnesota could use 

 for years to come. 



During the past hundred years since the first white 

 man came to Minnesota, the state has rolled up a 

 population of less than two and one-half millions. The 

 great bulk of that has flowed into the great cities and 

 the easily settled prairies. Scarcely a dent has been 



20 



