y 



as for its bark. A more modern instance is the gradual rise in impor- 

 tance of the western hemlock, until very recently altogether discredited 

 as a timber tree, although, in fact, of great commercial power. The 

 red fir of the Northwest and the southern pines are rapidh^ invading 

 markets formerly- controlled altogether by the white pine of the North 

 Central States, while species of peculiar value, such as black walnut 

 and black cherry, have practically vanished from the market in the 

 grades which once were common. The southern pines are being 

 destroyed with a rapidity which finds its parallel only in the case of 

 northern white pine. It is true that the list of commercial timbers 

 lengthens from year to year. Just as the balsam is taking the place 

 of the spruce, so are substitutes coming in for other woods which no 

 longer exist in sufiicient quantity to supply the demand. But neither 

 can this prove a sufiicient remed}'. The supply of the substitutes will 

 be exhausted in its turn, and the final situation will be worse than that 

 which confronts us now. It is no longer a question of methods of 

 manufacture, or of substitutes for exhausted supplies. The time for 

 us to look after the trees themselves has in many cases alread}^ arrived. 



Statistics of the merchantable timber still standing in this countr}^ 

 are difficult to make because the forest area is vast, and for large por- 

 tions of it we are without accurate knowledge. But in Mr. Henry 

 Gannetfs report upon lumber, in the Twelfth Census of the United 

 States, he has made good use of the data at hand, and he presefits 

 facts which are significant, based upon information sufficient to sus- 

 tain them. I wish to call your attention to a few of these. 



There is probably no forest in the world so immense, so accessible, 

 so eas}' to lumber, and so regular in the high quality of its timber as 

 was the great pinery which occupied the region of the Great Lakes 

 and of the Upper ^Mississippi. The forests of Michigan, Wisconsin, 

 and ^Minnesota originally contained a stand of about 350,000,000,000 

 feet. Of this Michigan had about 150,000,000,000; Wisconsin, 

 130,000,000,000: and Minnesota about TO.000.000,000 feet. Lumber- 

 ing began in Michigan and Wisconsin during the thirties, and was of 

 small importance until the early seventies. Since then the great 

 pinery has been cut over in a way unprecedented in lumbering. In 

 1873 the cut was about 4.000,000,000 feet. It reached high-water 

 mark in 1892, when it was over 8.500,000,000 feet. Since then it has 

 steadily fallen, and in 1902 it was a little over 5,000,000,000. To the 

 enormous total of about 188,000,000,000 feet cut in the last thirty 

 years there must be added about 28.000.000,000 feet, or 15 per cent, 

 for laths, shingles, and minor produce, making a total of 216,000,000,000 

 feet. Fifty billion feet were probably cut prior to 1873, which would 

 bring the total product of the Lake States to about 265.000,000,000 

 feet. As the estimate of the original stand amounted to about 350.000,- 

 000,000 feet, it would seem that after the cut of 1902, exclusive of 



