The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-06
ME PINE FORESTS OF AMERICA.

the following valuable facts and specifications
in regard to the lumber production and trade
of this country
'Ten years ago stumpage in Maine on the
Penobscot and Kennebec rivers was at what
was considered a nominal value, from fifty
cents to one dollar per thousand feet. When
it can be obtained now, it is sold from seven
to ten dollars. On the st. Croix river Mime
sofa, stumpage was only fifty cents to one
dollar per thousand feet five years ago, now
il averages from two dollars and fifty cents to
five dollars and fifty. Nothing under the for
mer figures is desirable. Pine lands can
scarcely be found in Government hands. It
is gradually concentrating into the hands of
fewer parties, and is most rapidly enhancing
in value. There are parties who now number
their lands in rash tracts Messrs. Chapman
Il Thorp, of this city, or the Eau Glare Lum-
Der Company, for instance, own over $4,000
acres; Knapp, Stout q Co., of Dubuque,
now connected with the firm of Boss
& Walkup, of this city own and control
10000 or more acres, and several other par
ties on the Wisconsin, Chippewa, st. Crox,
Upper Mississippi rivers and tributaries, own
and control from 20 to 3d. 600 acres each.
The business, in fact, has assumed a very diff
ferent phase from that of ten years ag) aad
all available or valuable pine lands are now
private property, and are owned in the main
by men who appreciate their value, and who
are fast clearing away the forests and sending
the products to market. Now, with all this
large concentration Of lands and the heavy
draft that bas been made on the forests of
pine in the past few years, it becomes a
serious question to the man who will think
what is to sustain this Immense draft for one
of the most common necessaries of life, aud a
demand for which every improvement in
civilization is only increasing While the OBJ
ject of those who control this large interest
in lizin n a ha
of the future will be more seriously felt when
the heavy demand that is to come from Eu-
rope and prospectively that of Asia, the for
mer of which is already drawing on US for
supplies;
and Minnesota, for the year 1869, shows the
amount cut as being 2,029,372 255 feet for
the State of Michigan, 317, 100000 feet
for the State of Minnesota, and 96t, SOC, 800
feet for the State of Wisconsin. This in
cludes the lake shore and the whole State of
Wisconsin, which heretofore has been difficult
to get report from. The total amount cut
in these States was 3,311, 372, 255 feet, and
that to obtain this quantity there have been
shipped SS3, ,032 acres or 1880 square miles of
pine have been removed. 1t is calculated that
1000, 600 acres of land still remain unstripped
in Michigan, which will yield $4,000, 900 900
feet of lumber. While 100000 acres are
still standing in Wisconsin, which will yield
IL, $50, OOO, ,O0e feet, and that which remains
in Minnesota, taking the estimate of few
years since of that which was surveyed and
unexplored, after deducting the amount cut
the past few years, we find $3.50, 600 acres to
be the proper estimate of trees now standing
which will yield 80, 362, 500, 600 feet of lum-
ber. This makes total of IL, $50, 600 acres of
pine lands, which remain standing in the
above States, that will yield 5S,642, 800, 900
feet of lumber, and it is thought that fifteen
or twenty years will be required to cut and
send to market the trees now standing. These
figures show the increased rate of consump-
ton during the past year, and indicate with
what rapidity our forests can be cleared. We
will take the older lumber States for instance,
which have surprised every inhabitant at the
early disappearance of their white pine. The
Maine forests have been SO we'll stripped that
not tree of old growth is to be seen in them
The white pine is represented only by sap
Hngs, which will not be of any service, as
lumber, for years, and most of the
lumber they use now comes from Michi
gan. Twelve years ago New York was
great lumber State, and exported
heavily the manufactured qualities; while
now her pine forests are exhausted and she
has to rely on the lake regions of the West,
by way of the Erie Canal, and from Canada
by Lake Champlain and the Champ ain Canal.
Large quantities of hemlock and spruce are
yet to be found in the northern counties of
the State, which IN part substitutes for the
pine, and railroads are piercing the wilder
ness in order to bring it to market. We have
now reached period when the demand for
timber is rapidly on the increase and the sup
ply diminishing. Settlements, too, are ap-
preaching the treeless regions of the plains.
By what agency the Western prairies and the
country beyond have been denuded it is use
less to speculate.
''It is true that there is large region in
ha via itu nf Dsn
vince of Ontario, Canada, as yet hardly
touched by the woodman's axe. But when
we take into consideration the vast extent of
territory of the West aud South to be sup
piled, we cannot look to Canada from the
West for supplies while the American East
ern is destitute and will require all that re-
gion can furnish. Then Wisconsin, Mchi-
gan, and Minnesota will be the more heavily
drawn upon each year for the demands of the
West and South, and the question is, can any
plan be devised to replace the loss by con-
sumption of lumber now being exhausted
with such prodigality? In Europe among
the questions that foI the last century
have been important In the councils of
the nations, has been that of preserva-
tion and adding to the growth of the
woods of the Countries. Valuable orders of
merit are accorded to the men who preserve
or grow the timber needed for ornament or
manufacture. And to the intelligent m IN
from England, France, or Prussia there is
no sight that occasions him more surprise
and pain than the recklessness with which
he sees our wood cut down in the forest 10 st
in the transit by carelessness, or wasted in
the manufacture. We Americans are not
exempt from the stupidity that has taught