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forest. In addition, they formed the most conspicuous part of these 
mixed forests themselves, so that the name of “ pinery” was applied to 
the entire body once covering this area. The conifers covered especially 
the poorest land; they stocked the barrens, the light sands, the roughest 
gravel lands, and clothed the swamps wherever the latter permitted of 
any tree growth. Besides forming the bulk of the forest growth, the 
chief conifers, White and Red (Norway) Pine and Hemlock, grew to 
larger size and better shape, yielded more material, and were easier 
logged, transported, and sawed, and their products found a much more 
extensive market than those of the hard woods. In the total amount 
of saw timber the conifers originally excelled the hard woods about as 
five to one, but at present all the conifers combined furnish only about 
twice as much material as the hard woods. 
WHITE PINE. 
Past.—The White Pine occurred in nearly all parts of this area. In 
most counties it was found in every township on almost every section, 
and though checked, apparently by a lack of humidity, at the “open- 
ings,” it followed all the streams—Wisconsin, Black, Chippewa, St. 
Croix, etc., a considerable distance beyond the limits of the forest. 
Generally, it seems quite independent of the quality of the soil. It grew 
as fast, as steadily, and to as large proportions on the sandy and gravelly 
' lands along the Flambeau, Chippewa, and Wisconsin, as on the heavier 
soils of the divides and the famous Wolf River Basin. 
The yields naturally varied with size and number of trees per acre. 
They were largest in mature stands of pure growth, such as may be seen 
in parts of Oneida and Vilas counties, where as much as 2,000,000 feet 
are cut from 40 acres, and where single acres might be selected that 
would cut 100,000 feet B. M. The yield is naturally smaller in very old 
timber, even in the pinery, where the stand is broken, and still more so 
in the old and scattered timber of the mixed forest, where often but one 
or two trees were found to the acre. A yield of 1,000,000 feet per 40 
acres, or 25,000 feet per acre, was and is considered a very good yield, 
and, generally, the cut is less than half this amount. In all these wild 
woods the ground is irregularly covered, and almost every 40-acre tract 
has its bare places without merchantable timber; therefore all yield 
figures per unit are somewhat misleading. Entire townships (23,000 
acres) are known to have cut over 400,000,000 feet per township, while 
200,000,000 per township have been accounted for in the output of the 
several mills for the entire area of Wood County, and a cut of about 
125,000,000 per township is recorded for the Wolf River above Shawano. 
For comparison with present supplies an attempt is made in the follow- 
ing tabie to estimate the original stand of pine for the several river 
basins. The figures are by no means high, and have been verified, at 
least, for portions of every basin, as explained further on. 
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