FORESTRY CONDITIONS AND INTERESTS OF WISCONSIN. 
By FILIBERT ROTH, 
Special agent, Division of Forestry. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
A survey of the forest conditions, like the one herewith presented for 
the State of Wisconsin, must necessarily be made in the form of a cen- 
sus or canvass, the special object of which shall be to collect the knowl- 
edge of the woods, and the experience in actual logging operations of 
several hundred men, and to secure a better interpretation of this infor- 
mation as well as a proper insight into the forestal conditions not 
usually observed by woodsmen, through personal inspection of typical 
localities in every county. 
From this it follows that all estimates of areas and yields represent 
the knowledge of the best-informed persons, and a fair degree of cor- 
rectness may be claimed for the same for the reason that each district, 
at least every county, is represented by a number of competent men, 
the writer being enabled by personal inspection to weigh, verify, or 
harmonize conflicting statements. The greatest help came from the 
practical woodsmen, who, in all parts of the territory, kindly assisted 
both by verbal information and by the use of their exhaustive ‘‘min- 
utes,” many of which fill volumes and represent an amount of detail 
information such as exists for but few parts of our country. 
In this connection it gives the writer pleasure to express his sincerest 
thanks to all these gentlemen, whose help alone insured reasonable 
success to so hasty a reconnoissance. The journey through the State 
occupied more than three months and involved one or more trips over 
nearly every mile of railway passing through the section, besides several 
hundred miles of travel by wagon. The county seat of every county 
was visited, and no county received less than two days’ attention. 
During the first part of the journey the writer was accompanied and 
greatly assisted by Prof. L.S. Cheney, of the State University of Wis- 
consin. Thanks are due to J. T. Cleveland, land commissioner of the 
Northwestern Railway Company, W. H. Killen, industrial commissioner 
of the Wisconsin Central Railway Company, and especially to L. Jack- 
son, industrial commissioner of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul 
Railway Company, whose courteous assistance did much to facilitate 
the work. 
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