for their underground works. Some of the first 
purchases were made to obtain wood for the large 
quantities of charcoal required for smelting in the 
early days. The depletion of ore reserves and the 
development of wood preservatives have removed 
much of the concern for future wood supplies, so 
that forest management must now stand on its own 
merits. In general the mining companies’ hold- 
ings are not being overcut, but as yet there is little 
evidence of any intention to practice forestry on a 
permanent basis. 
Pulp and paper companies, both Michigan and 
Wisconsin concerns, have acquired large reserves of 
spruce and hemlock in the Upper Peninsula. 
Some are finding it more satisfactory to purchase 
their wood on the open market or to import it from 
Canada, however, and there appears to be a 
tendency to liquidate all but a small supply to be 
kept for emergencies. Decreased use of wood in 
automobile manufacture has removed the motor 
companies’ need for large timber reserves, and their 
holdings are being opened for exploitation. 
The timberland holdings of hunting clubs and 
resorts have been considered unavailable for com- 
mercial use, but the need for revenue may 
eventually force cutting on some of these areas. 
Most of the forest land owned by the 10 land 
companies has been cut over and is being held for 
speculation. The same is true of the holdings of 
railroads and individuals. Some of the estates have 
valuable timber reserves, but with one or two 
exceptions these are being held for profitable sale 
rather than permanent management. 
Of the private land holdings of less than 2,000 
acres each, about one-third (664,000 acres) is 
woodland within farms, and about two-thirds is 
in small tracts held more or less speculatively. 
Little specific information is available with regard 
to individual farm holdings. Some are examples of 
good farm-forest management, as, for example, 
those of the old-country farmers who have been 
doing selective logging for years and are getting 
steady yields of firewood and posts from their 
woods. In most cases, however, the woodland is 
merely the uncleared part of the farm. The owner 
follows the most destructive methods of cutting, 
and burns and pastures to keep down sprouts and 
to help clear the land. Often he uses the same 
methods when he undertakes commercial logging 
on other lands. 
Many forties now being logged by 
small jobbers and farmers are being stripped of 
all merchantable products, including young sap- 
lings, which are cut for chemical wood, posts, or 
pulp. A large and increasing acreage of this land 
held by small owners, therefore, is becoming 
unproductive. 
Contributing to the difficulties involved in the 
problem of timber ownership is the geographic 
location of individual mills in relation to available 
timber supplies. 
Of the 124 landowners classified in table 15, one- 
third are timber operators. These operators con- 
trol 50 percent of the forest acreage and 60 percent 
of the timber volume, and much the greater part 
of both is controlled by 26 of them; the remaining 
15 own virtually no timber but operate on pur- 
chased stumpage or logs purchased from jobbers 
and farmers. The limited outlook for operators 
without timber holdings is complicated by uncer- 
tainty as to how the timber held by nonoperating 
companies will be handled, to what extent miscella- 
neous industries will compete for timber, and how 
much timber the farmers will cut for such uses as 
ties and chemical wood. In general, the prospec- 
tive period of operation of these mills is short. 
The 26 operators owning timber reserves appa- 
rently control enough stumpage to run at normal 
production rates for an average period of 16 
years. Actually the 4 operators having the least 
timber acreage will cut out in less than 10 years; 
and 7 or 8 should be able to operate for 20 years or 
more. 
The outlook for individual mills is far less 
promising than for the area as a whole. Whereas 
an average 10- or 15-percent curtailment of pro- 
duction, combined with a program of better man- 
agement and better utilization, would put the 
Upper Peninsula on a sustained-yield basis, most 
of the existing operations would have to reduce 
production 50 percent or more. The reason lies 
in the poor integration of mills and timber supplies. 
Some of the largest mills are in locations where 
little tributary timber remains, while some of the 
heaviest timber reserves are in districts not readily 
accessible to existing mills. 
On a selective-logging program, 37 of the 41 
operating companies, if they maintained present 
rates of production, would complete their first cut 
before any of their timberlands were ready for 
recutting. To convert the individual operations 
