54 ELEMENTARY FORESTRY. 



whatever being made for the wood itself. This state of things 

 exists because not only in the forests but more especially in 

 the great area of cut-over timber lands in that section there 

 is such an immense amount of dead and down timber that it 

 is seriously in the way and far in excess of the fuel demands 

 of the settlers on those lands for a score of years to come. 

 There seems to be something- incogruous in the fact that 

 while one-half of our state is prairie and sadly in want of fuel 

 and other forest supplies, the other half has such a super- 

 abundance of these products that they are going- to waste and 

 only a small portion is considered worth marketing*. 



Our Virgin Forests have contained and those remaining- now 

 contain a larg-e percentag-e of trees past their prime and los- 

 ing- in value each year they stand. Such forest products 

 should be worked up as soon as a g-ood market can be found 

 for them. The marketing of the products of the virgin forest 

 in Minnesota has added greatly to the wealth and prosperity 

 of the state and under proper management this source of 

 wealth should continue indefinitely. 



Timber in Minnesota. The most reliable figures place the 

 total area of natural forest in Minnesota in the year 1896 ex- 

 cluding brush land and open swamps at about 12,000,000 

 acres. The merchantable forest timber on this land consists 

 of about 14,424,000,000 board feet of White Pine, 3,412.000,000 

 board feet of Norway Pine and 6.000,000,000 board feet of 

 Jack Pine, Spruce, Tamarack and hard woods besides that 

 which is only valuable for fuel. 



The importance of the lumber industry to the state may 

 be best represented by the value of the finished product. The 

 census of 1890, owing to incomplete returns, does not repre- 

 sent the entire industry yet it gives some idea of its extent as 

 follows: 



Value of annual product $25,075,132 



Capital invested $39,837,000 



Number of employes 25,715 



Wages paid annually $6,166,266 



This estimate does not include wood used as fuel, railway 

 ties, piles, poles, posts, fencing, mine timber, house logs, 



