CONDITIONS IN COUNTIES. 65 



iable sandy loam and loamy soil, was formerly coTcred by a heavy 

 forest of pine, mixed with hardwoods. The country about lake 

 Shawano and north to the county line is part of the sandy pinery 

 district extending from this lake to the Menominee river. The north- 

 western two-thirds was a very heavy mixed forest of hemlock, hard- 

 woods, and pine, growing on a good, though in places very strong, 

 loam and slay soil. The pine is cut, except in the Indian reservation, 

 where about 300 million are still claimed to be standing. The hard- 

 woods and hemlock of the southeastern two-thirds are culled and 

 damaged by fire, those of the northwestern half are largely intact 

 and have been injured only about pine slashings. The standing hem- 

 lock is estimated at 650 million feet, the hardwoods at 700 million 

 feet, of which basswood, elm, and maple form over 70 per cent., and 

 oak only about 5 per cent. Beech occurs only in the sandy loam area. 

 About 30,000 acres around Shawano are covered by young white pine, 

 which has sprung up on old slashings. The extensive swamps of the 

 southeastern part have all been burned over and many of them are 

 being drained and cultivated. Those of the western half are largely 

 stocked with cedar and tamarack, some of them yielding 15 M. feet 

 and more per acre. Bare "stump prairies'' occur in all parts of the 

 county. 



Taylor. — ^A continuous mixed forest of pine, hardwoods, and hem- 

 lock on a loam and clay soil covered the entire county. The pine 

 has been cut, except small bodies in the southwestern part, estimated 

 at about 200 million feet. The remaining forest still covers more 

 than 60 per cent, of all vvdld lands and cuts about 6 M. feet per acre. 

 In this forest hemlock is predominant, is estimated at about 1,500 

 million feet, some good authorities placing it at 2,000 million. The 

 hardw^oods are about 1,000 million feet, of which 70 per cent, is bass- 

 wood and birch and only about 5 per cent. oak. The few swamps are 

 generally stocked with tamarack, some cedar, and spruce. Owing to 

 the dense, damp covea- of the mixed forest, Taylor county has suffered 

 but little from fires, and large areas of bare land are comparatively 

 scarce. 



Vilas. — A mixed forest stocks the better soils of the northern one- 

 fourth of this county and forms some scattering island tracts; else- 

 ■where it is an uninterrupted pinery, principally white pine with lit- 

 tle Norway and hardly any jack pine, covering a rather level, loamy 

 sand area dotted with several hundred lakes and numerous swamps. 

 Pine lumbering began here along the Wisconsin river over 25 years 

 ago, and the pine forest is cut into in almost every township. The 

 present stand of pine is estimated at about 1,500 million feet, besides 

 many thousand acres of sapling and young pine thickets which might 



F. w.— 5- 



