[15] 



averaging 35,000 feet, making a total of 3,907,400,000 feet. Along the Trask 

 are 102,400 acres, averaging 40,000 feet, making a total of 3,584,000,000 feet. 



The timber in the belt consists of fir, ceda, hemlock, spruce and larch. 

 The fir is the genuine yellow or Douglas fir. It constitutes 8 per cent of 

 the entire growth. Timber in the belt is less subject to fire than timber in 

 any section in Oregon. This is because the lands slope toward the ocean, 

 and the heavy fogs which prevail in the summer keep the leaves and under- 

 brush so damp that fires cannot take hold. 



Michigan and Wisconsin lumbermen of large capital own immense 

 bodies of timber land in the belt. 



This showing of forest wealth iu the five counties in the north-west 

 corner of the state of Oregon will be agreeable reading for her citizens, and 

 a study of the question of natural supply of the entire state will lead to en- 

 dorsement of the words of the Oregonian that it is "practically inexhaust- 

 ible " if our fellow citizens of the American Forestry Association can be 

 persuaded to refrain from such methods of procuring legislation affecting 

 their fellow citizens on this side of the continent — the conditions of whom 

 they cannot understand sufficiently to justify their meddling, by open ac- 

 tion or secret intrigue, obstructive of the most economical mode of harvest- 

 ing this great source of natural wealth. Information derived from the 

 assessor of Clatsop county enables me to confirm the statement of the Ore- 

 gonian, that "Michigan and Wisconsin lumber firms of large capital own 

 immense bodies of timber in this belt. But these companies are not oper- 

 ating the large and costly harvesting agencies in their own timber. Why? 

 Because the A ilson bill gave the lumber market of the world to Canada, 

 and the wool market of the world to Australia, and these men of Michigan 

 and Wisconsin were compelled either to let their machinery rust in idle- 

 ness or set it up near the line of the Canadian railway, and it has been em- 

 ployed there during the past four years, while the waste of decay has been 

 going on in the woods of Oregon. On the other hand, the development of 

 Oregon's portion of the great inland empire has been ot)structed by the 

 policy alluded to and the insidious methods of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, as I have shown. 



The Oregonmn's tables show the lumber cut of the five northwestern 

 counties of the state to be 210,176,000 feet; that of the five grazing counties 

 of Crook, Grant, Harney, Lake, and Malheur, 5,300,000 feet. The nation 

 has given about 2,400,000 acres of the public lands to induce the construc- 

 tion of so-called military roads into these counties. Thirty-seven years ago 

 families of the pioneer class of citizens (whose early settlement of Oregon 

 and Washington gave the nation its most important title of occupancy to 

 half of the then Oregon territory) began to settle within the boundary of 

 these five counties, making investments in full faith that the lit>eral policy 



