chief fire warden. 41 



Forest Reconnaissance of Wisconsin. 



Wisconsin's Forest Commission, six years ago, em- 

 ployed Mr. Filibert Roth, an able and experienced forest 

 expert, to make a reconnaissance of the northern part of 

 that state, with a view to inaugurating a forest policy. In 

 27 counties, having an aggregate area of 18,500, coo acres, 

 he found 6,800,000 acres, being 37.2 per cent, of poor 

 land which, he states in his report (published by the 

 Geological and Natural History Survey of Wisconsin), ' 'is 

 either not at all suited to farming, or only doubtfully so, 

 and should by all means be left to forest." He says that 

 his classification, when submitted to revision by the best 

 informants, was generally considered a fair estimate. He 

 found that the original stand of pine had comprised about 

 130 billion feet, of which 86 billion feet had been cut since 

 1840; that 26 billion feet had probably been wasted, 

 chiefly destroyed by fire, and that 17.4 billion feet re- 

 mained standing, and which was being cut at the rate of 

 3 billion feet per year. He found many thickets of young 

 pine, in the aggregate 200,000 acres, which had sprung 

 up in the previous 25 years, and which he estimated 

 would within fifty years, yield 5,000 feet per acre of mer- 

 chantable timber. He reports that Wisconsin's home 

 consumption of lumber is 600 million feet a year; that the 

 industries exploiting her forest resources paid yearly to 

 over 55,000 men the sum of over 15 million dollars in 

 wages; and he states in conclusion, that the failure to 

 protect or restock the denuded waste lands "causes a 

 continuous and ever growing loss to the commonwealth, 

 which at present amounts to about 800 million feet per 

 year of useful and much needed material." 



"To remedy this matter," he says, "and stop the 

 great loss, it will be necessary to adopt active measures 

 both to protect and restock. " 



