CONDITIONS IN COUNTIES. 59' 



also along the St. Croix river and the railways, but there is still a 

 great deal of standing timber in large and small bodies, estimated to- 

 cut about 3,500 million feet. Vhe hardwoods have been little invaded, 

 but since they form here but a secondary mixture, they are largely 

 killed by fire when the pine slashings are burned, as is well illustrated 

 by the country about, and south of Superior. On Maple Eidge con- 

 siderable hardwood is cut, and strangely enough, oak forms often as 

 much as 25 per cent, of the yield. Scattering as they are, the hard- 

 woods are still believed to be about 700 million feet. 



Dunn. — Of the sandy eastern half the northern portion is jack pine 

 woods and openings, the rest oak openings with real prairies. Of 

 the western half the clay and loam land ridges were covered with al- 

 most pure hardwoods and the roore sandy valleys were stocked with 

 a mixed growth of large pine and hardwoods, the former often pre- 

 vailing. The woods on Hay river partook of the regular pinery form 

 and merged into the jack pine woods of the northeastern towns. The 

 pine is practically all cut, though the scattering patches still amount 

 to several million feet. The hardwoods are much interrupted by 

 clearings, many tracts have been culled and even cut clean. The iso- 

 lated tracts of hardwood, with a yield of about 4 M. per acre, are es- 

 timated to cut 400 million feet of which oak is 25 per cent., and bass- 

 wood and maple form 50 per cent. The few swamps are generally 

 bare of merchantable material. Large areas of bare wasteland occur 

 in the jack pine district and may be seen along the railway between 

 Wheeler and Summit. Many groves of fine young white pine are fast 

 growing into timber about Menomonie. 



Florence. — The greater part of this county was a mixed forest of 

 pine, hardwoods, and hemlock on a gray loam, with smaller tracts of 

 regular pine land, especially along the streams, and a larger tract 

 in the northeastern part, where even jack pine woods covered con- 

 siderable ground. At present the pine is largely cut, and only about 

 150 millions of feet are believed to exist in this county. The hard- 

 woods and hemlock have not been cut except small patches about the- 

 towns, but have been injured in places by fire. With 4 M. feet per 

 acre of both hardwood and hemlock, the cut of the latter is about 

 300 million feet and that of the former about 400 million feet, of 

 which basswood, birch, and maple form 75 per cent., while oak 

 scarcely occurs. The swamps are generally covered and swell the en- 

 tire cut of timber by over 100 million feet. Burned areas occur in 

 every town of the county, occupying 20 per cent, of the entire land 

 surface. Here, as in other counties, they form a far' greater propor- 

 tion of the area than is usually supposed. 



Forest. — The northwest quarter of the county is largely a flat. 



