32 
of the present cut of over 2,000,000,000 feet (the cut was about 
3,900,000,000 in 1893) is logged on a large scale with heavy equipment 
and is sawn in large mills. All cutting is extremely close; in most 
camps everything is taken “that will make a 2 by 4 inch,” so thateven 
sapling thickets are no longer spared, and the milling, driving, grad- 
ing, etc., is done with remarkable careand economy. Ordinary mature 
timber yields about 4 to 44 logs per tree, where 5 to 7 logs cut 1,000 
feet B. M. The general average size (diameter) of the pine logs is at 
present only about 14 inches, and it takes 10 logs to make 1,000 feet 
B. M. Where much Red (Norway) Pine is cut, the size is even smaller; 
large quantities are logged to-day where 15 to 20 logs are required to 
make 1,000 feet B. M. 
Future.—The future of Pine supplies necessarily depends on the 
amount of growing timber and on its chance of growth. Throughout 
the hardwood districts there is no young growth of Pine of any conse- 
quence. Some groves of young Pine occur on many old and burned- 
over slashings on the sandy loam and loamy sand districts, where 
settlement has put a stop to the fires. In all pineries proper, many 
thickets of young Pine occur which have sprung up during the last 
twenty-five years, but most of these are on land either never logged 
before or else but lightly culled. If protected, these groves could soon 
furnish a considerable quantity of merchantable timber, but under 
present conditions they will be largely crippled or entirely killed by 
fires, or else cut into cordwood for shook purposes. By far the best 
example of thrifty young White Pine on old burned-over slashings 
may be seen at Shawano; other fine groves occur abundantly near 
Grand Rapids and at other places on the Wisconsin River, and also 
on the Chippewa River and its tributaries. These groves of Pine have 
sprung up so gradually that in many cases those familiar with the 
place are astonished when their attention is directed to them. After 
the first fires the land is covered by Fireweed and Aspen; it is usually 
burned over a few times more, until the bulk of the débris is con- 
sumed; then the Aspen is given a chance to form thickets of greater 
denseness, and the impression and the common notion is that this is 
the end, that the land is now to continue in Aspen, and that Aspen 
is the alternate in a ‘natural rotation” of Pine and hard woods. If, 
however, there are any survivors of Pine near by—a common occur- 
rence, especially on slashings of former years—young Pine seedlings 
will soon make their appearance among the Aspen. These Pines, how- 
ever, require about five years to attain a foot in height, and so for 
years, even though numerous (often 500 to 600 per acre), they escape 
the notice of most people. Before long the gray of the Aspen thicket 
changes to a mixture of gray and green, and in a few more years the 
Aspen grove is transformed into a Pine thicket, with the feebly strug- 
gling Aspen dying out. In the aggregate these groves of young Pine, 
of which there are many in every county visited, are safely estimated 
