48 
one-third of the assessed value of all land in the State, or about one- 
sixth of the value of all real estate, and over one-eighth of the assessed 
value of the entire wealth of Wisconsin. Of this $85,000,000, over 
$13,000,000 is in the milling plants and machinery, $11,000,000 in log- 
ging equipments, logging railways, etc., including also logs on hand at 
the time, and over $31,000,000 in timber land, tributary and belonging 
to the sawmills. These industries paid during that year nearly 
$700,000 taxes, a Sum equal to the total State taxes of Wisconsin; they 
paid over $3,000,000 for running expenses aside from wages; about 
$15,000,000 for wages and logging contracts, and over $700,000 for the 
keep of animals alone. 
The lumbering industry gave employment in a regular way to over 
55,000 men (not women and children), besides purchasing several 
million dollars worth of logs. Of those employed in these operations a 
large per cent are settlers who through this industry alone are enabled 
to support themselves until their slowly growing clearings furnish 
sufficient harvest. It is the taxes on timber land (not waste land, how- 
ever), and its industries which furnish the ‘road money,” and itis this 
same fund which builds, equips, and largely maintains in the thinly 
settled backwoods of Wisconsin schools equal if not better than those 
of the country districts of any other State. It is this same industry 
which for years has made farming in the backwoods more profitable 
and the farmers more prosperous than those of some other States with 
milder climates and equally fertile soil. Nor is it the Pine alone which 
has done and is doing so much for this country; for, owing to an unnec- 
essary and injurious competition in the exploitation of the pineries, a 
concentration of milling and logging operations has resulted, which in 
many cases has deprived the particular counties in which the pine sup- 
plies were located of much of the benefit which otherwise would have 
accrued to them from this resource, and it is to be expected that to 
counties like Langlade, Shawano, Forest, Lincoln, Taylor, and others, 
the standing Hemlock and hard woods will prove to be of greater value 
than was their former stand of pine. 
FOREST, CLIMATE, AND WATER FLOW. 
The beneficial influence of the woods in tempering the rigors of a cold 
continental climate, with its sudden changes and severe storms, is prob- 
ably conceded by all. What share the forest has in the general changes 
of humidity is not so apparent. That a general and very gradual 
change from a moister to a drier condition has been going on for a long 
time over the entire Lake region seems quite certain. The behavior of 
Hemlock and even of White Pine in the matter of distribution is prob- 
ably in part due to this change. How much the forests have done to 
retard the progress of this desiccation can only be inferred. On the 
other hand, the striking changes in the drainage conditions which have 
required but a short time, have taken place within the memory of many 
