140 



FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The above estimates of jack pine, spruce, balsam, tamarack, and cedar must be regarded as 

 rough approximations, since the areas stocked with these timbers are very difficult to ascertain. 



What these supplies of pine have been in the past may be inferred from the following calcu- 

 lations, the basis for which have been verified for large areas on the Chippewa, Black, Wisconsin, 

 and Wolf rivers, and may be supposed to understate the truth by at least 10 to 15 per cent. 



Probable original stand and present stand of merchantable j>ine in the State of Wisconsin. 



River basin. 



Number 

 of towns 

 stocked. 



Black 



St. Croix 



Bed Cedar 



Chippewa 



Wisconsin 



Wolf 



Oconto 



Peshtigo 



Menominee 



Rivers to Lake Superior. 

 Rivers to Green Bay 



40 

 100 



40 

 175 

 172 



00 



28 



07 



47 

 76 



Total 



772 



Yield per 

 town. 



225 

 125 

 200 

 200 

 175 

 125 



150 

 150 

 150 

 200 



Yield on 

 ri> or. 



Million feet, 

 9,000 



12, 500 

 8,000 



35, 000 



30, 100 

 7,500 

 3,500 

 4,050 

 7,050 



11,400 

 1,400 



129, 500 



Yield on 

 river in 

 per cent 

 of total. 



6.9 



10.7 



6.1 



26.7 



22.9 



3 

 5.4 



8.7 

 1 



Present 

 stand 



2ZilKonfL 



270 



3,560 



475 



3, 000 



2, 575 



470 



150 



500 



1,500 



4,200 



16,700 



Remarks. 



Contains much jack-pine barrens. 



Includes heavy hardwood forest. 

 Much hardwood forest. 

 Do. 



Only Wisconsin side. 



Of these 129,500,000,000 feet there is approximately— 



Billion feet. 



Standing at present ^.7 



Cut between 1873 and 1898 66 



Probable cut 1840 to 1873 20 



Total accounted for 102. 7 



Leaving a balance of nearly 27,000,000,000 feet wasted, to which must be added several 

 billions as growth since 1840. Of this enormous waste certainly more than 60 per cent, or 

 about 20,000,000,000 feet, is due to fire, the rest failing to storms, old age, and waste in cutting. 

 This is white pine only. 



Besides this injury to pine, fire has killed more than 5,000,000,000 feet of hemlock, at least 

 1,000,000,000 feet of cedar, and several billions of hard woods, besides large quantities of tama- 

 rack, and in addition has killed stands of young sapling pine (under 8 inches diameter) covering 

 many thousand acres which to-day would furnish 5,000,000,000 feet and more of merchantable 

 material. 



PUESENT GROWTH. 



The amount of timber which at the present time is growing each year on the stocked portion 

 of this area may very safely be placed at about 925,000,000 feet B. M., and is distributed among 

 the several kinds of timber as follows : 



Million feet. 



White and Norway pine 250 



Jack pine 30 



Hemlock 75 



Tamarack 30 



Cedar 20 



Spruce and balsam 20 



Hard woods 500 



Total 925 



Of this growth the greater part is balanced by decay or natural waste, which in all wildwoods 

 necessarily equals growth when large areas and long periods are considered. For white pine, 

 Norway, and jack pine, also for tamarack and cedar in Wisconsin, nearly half the present growth 

 takes place in forests of young, immature timber, since this largely prevails. With the old pine 

 mixed in the hard- wood forest, and especially with hemlock, decay proceeds faster than growth j 

 for spruce and balsam an increase can hardly be assumed, and even in the hardwoods the growth 

 and decay is practically in a state of equilibrium. 



