The impressive thing is that we are bringing hardwoods from far 

 and near, and still the cut is going down. 



CONDITIONS IN MAIN REGIONS OF PRODUCTION. 



The main production is now in the Lake States, especially Michi- 

 gan and Wisconsin, the lower Mississippi Valley, and the Appa- 

 lachian Mountains. What are the conditions in these regions? 



LAKE STATES. 



The three Lake States furnished 18 per cent of the hardwood cut in 

 190G, as against 16 per cent in 1899. This percentage increase does 

 not mean a real increase. On the contrary, every one of the Lake 

 States fell off, though altogether their cut did not decrease in propor- 

 tion to that of the rest of the country. The figures seem to indicate 

 unmistakably that their maximum production has been reached. If 

 this is true, then their decline in the future is likely to be almost as 

 rapid as that of Ohio and Indiana, because of the nearness of many 

 large hardwood-using industries which will make heavy demands 

 upon the supply. This is nov/ the supply nearest to many of the 

 great plants in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. 



The hardwoods in the Lake States stand upon good loam soil 

 which, though stony in places, produces the finest of grasses. Where 

 arable, this soil yields good crops of hay and potatoes, and in some 

 localities grain and fruit. So invariably do the hardwoods indicate 

 good soil that they are one of the most common means of land classifi- 

 cation. And since hardwood land always means good soil^ land from 

 which hardwoods are cut does not revert to the State, as has been 

 frequently the case with pine land, especially in Michigan. The hard- 

 wood land is held until it can be sold to farmers who clear it and turn 

 it permanently to agricultural use, for which, as in Ohio and Indiana, 

 it is fundamentally suited. 



The southern part of Michigan, which originally bore magnificent 

 hardwoods, was the first part of the State to be cleared, and is now 

 the backbone of Michigan's agriculture. Just as fast as the hard- 

 woods, even in the northern peninsula, are cut the land will be settled 

 for farming. The same is true of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The 

 almost complete exhaustion of their timber supply and the trans- 

 formation of their hardwood lands into farms are apparently the 

 only results to be expected. 



LOWEB MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



The States of the lower Mississippi Valley, including Missouri, 

 Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, produced in 1899 



[Cir. IIG] 



