30 



FORESTS OF WISCONSIN. 



fire, and involve in all old stands a heavy per cent, of defective 

 material. 



Present stand of hardwood saw timber. 



The hardwoods are cut in all parts of this territory^ they are 

 generally logged in a small way and most of the lumber is cut 

 in small mills, with a yearly output of 1-2 to 5 million feet. 

 According to a masterly canvass conducted by the Northwest- 

 em Lumberman of Chicago, the results of which are published 

 in its issue of January 22, 1898, the total output of hardwood 

 lumber amounts to about 275 million feet B. M. To this must 

 be added large quantities of mining timber used in the mines 

 of Florence, Iron, and Ashland counties, railway ties, piling 

 and construction, and ship timbers; and also considerable quan- 

 tities of cooperage material and wagon stock, which in the ag- 

 gregate probably bring up the total cut of hardwoods to about 

 500 million feet. 



The most valued and therefore the most culled of the hard- 

 woods is the oak, particularly white oak, the exploitation of 

 which was begun in Wood and Clark counties more than 25 

 years ago. Of the other hardwoods, the basswood is most ex- 

 tensively cut and finds the most ready market, followed in this 

 respect by elm, particularly the fine rock elm. Birch, though 

 the prettiest wood of the region, is much unden-ated, owing to 

 fashions which prejudice the market. Nevertheless, large quan- 

 tities are cut every year and the same is true of maple, which is 



