42 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Photo by "Pine Cone," Minneapolis, Minn. 



Springtime on a Minnesota River. 



logs of the winter's cut are waiting for the floods to carry them into the boom some scores of miles down 

 stream. these smooth pine logs will lose much of their bark during the jams and the bumps of the 

 drive, but the wood will not be injured and such is the material of which high grade lumber is made, 

 on the rising ground back of the river shore, the view shows a fine forest of white pine, apparently 

 without a tree amiss. their turn will come next winter. 



coming of civilized man to these shores, 

 but estimates have been made. It is 

 assumed that the superficial extent of 

 the range then was approximately the 

 same as now. Three hundred years 

 have not much extended or contracted 

 the boundaries, notwithstanding the 

 enormous lessening of the stumpage. 

 The area actually occupied by the 

 original forests has been estimated at 

 225,000,000 acres, and the stumpage 

 at 450,000,000,000 feet. The estimated 

 stumpage seems conservative in view of 

 the fact that nearly half that much has 

 been marketed from the Lake States. 

 The total stand, in the foregoing esti- 

 mate, included that in Canada as well 

 as in the United States. The remain- 

 ing stumpage south of the international 

 boundary line is now placed at approx- 

 imately 25,000,000,000 feet, of which 

 Michigan has 2,000,000,000, Wisconsin 

 3,200,000,000, Minnesota 12,500,000, 

 000, and the remainder is in New Eng- 

 land, New York, and southward along 

 the Appalachian ranges. The reported 

 sawmill output of this wood in 1912 was 



2,700,000,000 feet, the leading states in 

 the production following: 



Feet 



Minnesota 1,225,674,000 



Wisconsin 397,549,000 



Maine 280,145,000 



New Hampshire 240,215,000 



Massachusetts 143,119,000 



Michigan 141,003,000 



New York 76,355,000 



Pennsylvania 71,870,000 



Twenty-five states have white pine 

 sawmills, the smallest number being 

 one in Indiana. 



The size of mature white pine trees 

 varies with the region. The average is 

 now much smaller than before the best 

 was cut. Probably a diameter of two 

 feet and a height of 100 will be found 

 reasonable at this time. The pines of 

 the Lake states were smaller than those 

 in the original forests of Massachusetts, 

 if reliance can be placed on the frag- 

 mentary accounts which have come 

 down to the present. There are appar- 

 ently authentic records of white pines 



