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the same. In order to do this intelligently he must have a judgment 
as to the competency of his informants, and finally he must be able to 
check the information in the field by estimating the probability of the 
correctness of his information. In this field work he will take care 
to observe, also, the distribution of the varying species composing 
the forest and the differences in types of forest growth, the damage 
which forest fires have wrought, the conditions which influence repro- 
duction variously, and any other features which are not matters capable 
of being reduced to enumeration, but are capable only of descriptive 
expression. 
In this manner the expert will gather in the field the information 
which enables him to produce a picture of the forest resources as it 
presents itself in the field, with due reference to its economic aspects 
to be expressed by numerical and descriptive text and possibly by 
maps and charts. 
To complete this picture and furnish arguments for any measures that 
the State or private enterprise might take with reference to the use of 
these resources, some further information isnecessary, which can usually 
be found collated for other purposes, or can be ascertained by the usual 
census methods. 
Here belongs information regarding the proprietary conditions of the 
forest areas, whether State lands, belonging to public institutions, to 
private owners, and what classes of private owners, and the statistics 
which reveal the condition and relative position in the State’s house- 
hold of the industries exploiting and relying upon forest resources. 
This information, too, can not quite satisfactorily be brought together 
and compiled by a census taker unless he have some idea of the 
technicalities of lumber production and use of wood. 
To be sure, as Stated at the outset, all statistical information can only 
be an approximation of the truth, and the degree of approximation 
depends on expenditure of skill and money. In the canvass of the 
forest conditions of Wisconsin in this report much of the desirable infor- 
mation could not, at least conclusively or fully, be ascertained on 
account of the limitations of time and funds. 
At the end of the report a suggestive schedule will be found, which 
exhibits the precise information desirable to ascertain, and which was 
used as a basis for this canvass. 
RESUME OF THE REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 
From the results of this canvass for the State of Wisconsin we can 
make the following brief general statement: 
The State of Wisconsin, with a population of about 2,000,000, a tax- 
able property of about $600,000,000, has a home consumption of over 
600,000,000 feet B. M. of lumber, besides enormous quantities of other 
wood material, which, if imported, would cost the State over $25,000,000. 
Of its northern half—a land surface of over 18,000,000 acres—only 7 per 
