58 
private owners, whose fortunes are only of to-day and whose heirs will 
prefer to parcel the land out to inexperienced settlers, can not here be 
considered. The experience abroad and also in this country indicates 
that the State must at least undertake the care of the most difficult and 
unprofitable parts, and that the greatest good to the greatest number 
lies in State ownership of forests. New York waited a long time to see 
private owners manage rationally in its woods, but has been compelled 
at last to buy the land and to establish a forest organization to keep 
its mountains from being converted into desert brush lands and its 
streams from being alternately dry branches and mud torrents. A 
similar movement in Wisconsin would at present be greatly facilitated 
by the present conditions of ownership. The land is still held in large 
bodies and by men actively engaged in a business quite distinct from 
speculation and dealing in real estate, and therefore a transfer could 
be effected in most cases very easily and at prices (25 to 50 cents per 
acre) which would seem to guarantee financial success to forestry even 
in the backwoods of Wisconsin. 
FOREST CONDITIONS IN THE SEVERAL COUNTIES. 
Ashland County.—The northern one-fifth of the county was formerly 
a pinery on red clay soil with a thin sprinkling of inferior hard woods, 
some Hemlock, and occasionally Cedar and even Tamarack on the more 
level areas. To the south a mixed forest of hard woods, Hemlock, and 
Pine on gray loam and clay lands stocked both slopes of the range as 
well as nearly all parts south of the range. In places, especially along 
streams, Pine was predominant, which was also the case on the small 
sandy tract along the Flambeau in the southeast corner of the county. 
The Pine timber along the lake, except that of the Indian reservation, 
is cut and the Pine has been culled from most of the mixed forest and 
is estimated, all told, at only 300,000,000 feet. Small patches about the 
mines have been cut clean of all timber. ,Generally the hard woods and 
Hemlock are unculled, and, with a yield of 4,000 feet per acre, amount 
to about 700,000,000 feet of Hemlock and 900,000,000 feet of hard woods, 
of which Birch and Basswood form fully 60 per cent, while Oak is hardly 
of economic importance. Fires have injured Ashland only in the pinery 
along the lake, and thus even the swamps are fairly well stocked with 
Cedar, Tamarack, and some Spruce. 
Barron County.—The northern one-third, a gray loam and gravel 
land, was originally stocked with a mixed forest of Pine and hard woods, 
the Pine prevailing, except on the ridges of the northwestern part of 
the county. In the central part, on a variable sandy loam, there was a 
pinery with a thin mixture of hard woods and occasional better hard- 
wood bodies (see “Soo” Line from Cameron west). The southeastern 
one-fifth of the county, widest along the east line, was sandy, Jack 
Pine and Oak openings. The Pine is cut, except in the northern and 
northeastern towns; the hard woods are culled and in nearly all parts 
ew? 
