24 
FORESTS OF WISCONSIN . 
(arborvitse) is limited to the swamps, but as in parts of Minnesota 
and Michigan, it also invades the ordinary forests. In many 
swamps it is wanting, frequently it is sole occupant; more com¬ 
monly, however, it is mixed with tamarack, some spruce and 
often a few scattered hardwoods; it forms dense thickets, repro¬ 
duces well, grows rather slowly, is generally under 18 inches in 
diameter at four feet from the ground, and is less than 60 feet 
in height; the older trees are normally defective at the butt. 
The yield of cedar is extremely variable and difficult to estimate. 
As it is saleable down to 4 and even 3 inches diameter the yield 
is generally great wherever the swamps have not been burned. 
A total of 1,300 million feet B. M., the equivalent of 2,600,000 
cords, may be regarded as a very conservative estimate. Cedar 
(arborvitse) is cut for posts, poles, both telegraph and telephone, 
ties, and shingle timber. Wherever it is near highways, cedar 
finds good market; the logging is generally done on small scale, 
and exact figures for the total cut are therefore not accessible. 
TAMARACK. 
Tamarack, like cedar (arborvitse) grows chiefly in the 
swamps; only in some of the moist and cold localities, especially 
along Lake Superior, does it invade to a small extent the upland 
woods. Unlike the arborvitse the tamarack inhabits the 
swamps quite to the western and southern limits of the district 
under consideration, and even stocks part of the swamps of the 
adjoining oak and jack pine openings or brush prairies. In 
these drier localities it remains small, but within the more humid 
parts it attains commonly to 12 or 16 inches in diameter, reach¬ 
ing a height of 70 to 80 feet with a most remarkably small taper. 
It reproduces well, grows quite fast, forms very dense thickets, 
often entirely covering the swamp with poles of nearly one age 
and size, but also often occupying merely its edges or the center. 
It may be practically alone, i. e., form groves of pure growth, 
but quite often it is mixed more or less with cedar, spruce, and 
some hardwoods. The former condition frequently or nearly 
