6 BULLETIN 638, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



In Oscoda County, Mich., the town of McKinley has met a similar 

 fate. Unlike many other woods towns it never had a large sawmill, 

 but was rather a distributing center for the surrounding region. It 

 had railroad and machine shops, a small sawmill and a shingle mill 

 cutting material for local use, and served as headquarters for ad- 

 jacent lumbering operations. The usual assortment of schools, 

 churches, stores, hotels, and saloons met the needs of the 500 or more 

 people in the town itself, to say nothing of the 2,500 lumberjacks in 

 the surrounding woods. To-day the town is nothing but a memory. 

 A few deserted houses, the foundations of the old shops, and a popu- 

 lation of three, one of whom is a county pauper, are all that is left 

 of its former activity. Its prosperity departed with the forests that 

 gave it birth. 



Farther west, in Wisconsin, the same trail of deserted villages has 

 been left in the wake of the lumber industry. If it were not for the 

 summer tourists who, in spite of the desolation of the cut-over lands, 

 are attracted to the region by the beauty of its lakes the decline of 

 many of the towns would be still more marked. Throughout the 

 region desolation and decay have followed the prosperity that lasted 

 only as long as the timber. 



DESERTED FARMS. 



In some regions the practice of timber "mining" has actually 

 tended to cause the abandonment of farms as well as of towns. 

 Nearly everywhere the fullest use of the natural resources of the 

 country demands that both forestry and agriculture be practiced, 

 each in its appropriate place, since most regions contain both farm 

 land and forest land, although of course in widely varying propor- 

 tions. Even in the best farming districts there are usually certain 

 areas that should be devoted to woodlots, and patches suitable for 

 cultivation are found in regions composed mainly of absolute forest 

 land. Where the cultivable land is rather scattered, of only medium 

 quality, or at some distance from a satisfactory market, it is often 

 necessary for the region to have some other industry in order to make 

 farming practicable. Profitable returns can not be secured from the 

 farm alone. In such regions permanent wood-using industries afford 

 additional opportunities for the farmer to secure employment. They 

 not only help to tide him over the difficult period when he is clearing 

 his land and getting a start, but they also furnish an extra source of 

 income after he has become well established. Moreover, the presence 

 of a population permanently employed in the wood-using industries 

 creates a strong local market for farm products. This often enables 

 the farmer to dispose profitably of material that could not be shipped 

 to a more distant market. Additional industries also help to secure 



