The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-02-17

int and Pere Marquette railroad. o5,0OJOOO
Michigan Central ID. 4 ID. @. and Mack
mac diNisonsl OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. s0.Wo,oOo
The Saginaw valley. ........... yIS,OOO,OOO
The Lake Huron shore ................ 3l0,0OO,OO0
Miscellaneous .............. 100000 600
Total ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 3, $50, OO0, 900
1t is also estimated that the lumber
men of Michigan manufactured during
1881 over 1900. 000,00J shingles and
500, 600, 900 lath. and cut 400, 600, 900 feet
of hard wool-all of this in addition to
large amount of slaves, headings,
cedar posts, railroad ties, hemlock bark,
cord wood, and other minor forest pro.
ducts. The greatest underwriting
city In the United States is Muskegon.
and Mani,tee is not equaled on this con-
tinent in the production of shingles. No
single lumber district in the Union can
point to as fine mills or as large pro-
duct as the Saginaw valley. Three
fifths of all the white pine cut in the
Northwest during the last decade came
from the forests of this State, and two
thirds of the best lumber sold la the
markets of Albany, New York, Boston
and Philadelphia to-day is the product
of the Michigan mills.
The United States census estimate of
the am cunt of standing pine Ill this
State on May 81, 1880, was 30, 900, 000,-
900 feet in the Lower Peninsula and g.
600, 00O,0 900 in the Upper the same
authority estimated that Michigan also
contained 30, 900, 0OO acres OF nard- wood
lands, 1000, 100000 feet of hemlock
lumber yielding also 1000, 900 cords of
bark, 1900, 900 cords of white and vel
fa,, f,,I oh
servers believe that these figures were
rather under than over the facts, and
that they describe with substantial ac-
curacy our present stock of standing
merchantable timber. 1t is safe to say
that for some years yet Michigan will
preserve her prominence as the leading
lumber State.
Michigan in 1881 maintained it's
position as the largest salt-producing
State, by placing in the market 2, $780,
800 barrels of this staple, exceeding by
nearly 100,0 900 barrels the previously
unprecedented yield of 1880. OF this
total all but 53, 900 barrels passed the
careful State inspection as first quslity.
Its manufacture was the work. OF 121
salt blocks and 4, 500 solar covers, hay
ing an estimated annual capacity of 81
400, 600 barrels. The Saginaw valley
yielded the greater part of this product;
but there were considerable contribu-
tons from Huron and Iosco counties,
which face each other across the mouth
of the Saginaw bay. During 1881 wells
were also sunk at Manistee, on the shore
of Lake Michigan, into brine-carrying
basins beneath the Saginaw reservoir
(Which is called by biologists the Way
erly group, and with successful re-
suits. A new salt district was thus Gre
ated, and stimulus given to subter-
ranean explorations elsewhere. The
sinking of salt-wells has been in
progress with promising prospects in
Berrien, Gratoit, Muskegon, Alpena
Cheboygan and other counties. In Iosco
county pipeline twelve miles in length
was recently laid between the salt-wells
of East Tawas and the lumber-mills of
Oscoda; and this added new feature to
this industry. Michigan's superiority
in the manufacture of salt promises to
be permanent, for it rests on these solid
foundations: l, the practical mex
haustibility of its brine supply, new
reservoirs being developed, while the
old ones still yield amply; 2, the strength
of its brine, which is 9lt per cent. =,
against 50. at Onondaga, and 359 at
Kanawha; B, the system of State in
spection, which keeps up the chemical
purity of the product; 4, the cheapness
with which the brine can be evaporated
in blocks connected with the saw-mills,
and using their exhausted steam.
COPPER.
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is
disputing Chili's claim rs the chief
source of the worlds supply of copper.
The annual yield OF its mines in puer
metal rivals that of the ore-mines of
Chill, and far outstrips the product,
past or present, or any of the copper
districts of North America, England, the
European continent or Australia. No
mine of its class has ever been as profit
able or as productive rs the Calumet
and Hecla, which, with total assess
ment for all purposes upon it's share
holders of less than 100000 has
built up vast industry, employing over
1000 men, and supporting two villages
with over 5, 900 inhabitants; has invested
a large sum in permanent improve
ments has yielded more than one third
of the entire copper-product of Lake
Superior; and has divided over $780,
100000 among its shareholders. The
yield of all the copper-mines of Lake
Superior in 1881 is placed at about "a,
900 tons of mineral, equal to %, 600 tons
of ingot copper, possessing value of
about S10,000,000. Nearly two-thirds
OF the product of 1881 came from
the Calumet and Hecla levels.
All of the Lake superior copper,
be it remembered, is not an ore, but a
pure metal, which is marketable after it
is freed from the rock in which it is
imbedded 1t is sold in the principal
markets of the world, and, for uses re-
curing an especial degree of tenacity
(such as cartridge making) commands
the highest price.
IRON.
For some years Michigan has ranked
as the second State in the production of
iron ore, but first in the quality of the
ore and the value of its product. For
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