88 



THE FORESTER. 



April, 



brought 30 cents ; seven-inch logs 30 to 

 35 cents, former price 20 cents ; ten inch 

 logs 70 cents, former price 60 cents ; 

 twelve-inch logs 90 cents, formerly 65 

 cents. To these figures 15 cents is added 

 by the saw mill men for framing, etc. , this 

 being their regular figure at all times. 

 Of course the timber bill for the big 

 mines, under these conditions, is in- 

 creased from one-third to one-half, but 

 probaby the mine manager would not 

 complain providing there were plenty of 

 timbers. But even at these fancy prices 

 only a stray carload now and then can be 

 secured, and the shrewd logger naturally 

 holds out for the highest prices. In 

 fact the local saw mill men have had to 

 bid very lively in order to secure what 

 few timbers they have on hand, which 

 accounts, partially, at least, for the 

 high prices now prevailing. 



The result of this timber famine is 

 apparent. The big mines gobble up 

 every stick of timber on the market. 

 The small lessee is the one who par- 

 ticularly suffers. He is unable to pros- 

 ecute his operations, particularly in 

 catching up the iron stopes, and as a 

 result a large amount of this work has 

 had to be abandoned. In fact some of 

 the lessees have found themselves in a 

 rather serious predicament, and several 

 of them have had to temporarily aban- 

 don work. Lcadville (Co/o.~) Herald- 

 Democrat. 



The frontispiece of The Forester is 

 a view of the entrance of a mine in the 

 Cripple Creek (Colo.) district in its 

 earlier stages of development, and illus- 

 trates some of the uses to which timber 

 is put in the mining industry, while the 

 hill in the background, once heavily 

 timbered, shows that a mining commu- 

 nity utilizes practically all of the timber 

 at hand. The interior timbering of the 

 mine is necessarily not shown, but in 

 many formations it is most important 

 and the quantity required for this purpose 

 is large. On page 77 is presented a 

 view of a forest in a reserve near one of 

 the largest mining camps in the North- 

 west. It tells its own story a story 



that must appeal strongly to the mine 

 owner. It is true that he may secure 

 many good mine timbers from the charred 

 trunks of the burned forest, but if he 

 cares for the perpetuation of the great 

 industry in which his interest lies he 

 must feel a personal responsibility in 

 hastening the adoption of a policy which 

 will limit if not prevent the occurrence 

 of forest fires in the mining regions. 



The Diversion of Spruce. 



Emphatically the pulp material is 

 Spruce. No other wood, available in 

 large quantities, has to so high a degree 

 the requisites for this class of manufac- 

 ture as has the leading element in the 

 forests of New England. Its fiber is 

 long and tenacious and the logs are both 

 easily handled and worked; so that as 

 the business of paper pulp manufacture 

 develops greater and greater have been 

 the inroads upon the Spruce supply for 

 this purpose, and it is rapidly being 

 diverted from its use as a lumber timber 

 to the purposes of the pulp makers. 



Ten years ago Spruce was the leading, 

 or one of the leading, woods in use in 

 New England and adjacent territory, and 

 the condition of the Spruce market was 

 of more interest to Eastern lumbermen 

 than that of any other wood excepting 

 White Pine, and perhaps exceeding that 

 wood in its real significance. But Spruce 

 lumber is rapidly becoming a thing of 

 the past. Elsewhere in this issue of the 

 Lumberman will be found a review of the 

 changes which have taken place and are 

 now in progress in the Spruce hold- 

 ings and manufacture in New England. 

 They come from the fact that, manufac- 

 tured into paper, Spruce is many times 

 more valuable than when made into 

 lumber. The pulp business originated 

 more than ten years ago, but even as 

 recently as that the Spruce put into pulp 

 consisted mainly of timber too small for 

 profitable lumbering operations. The 

 saw mills took the saw logs, and what 

 was left on the lands, ranging perhaps 

 from four to twelve inches in diameter, 

 was taken to the pulp mills. But now 



