Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-01-26
THE PINE TREE.
"Woodnan spare that tree"

In looking over the county,
where a few years ago, row on
row of giant pines in almost solid
phalanx stood-and every one
held in its fragrant heart the means
to pay the lusty woodman for the
long days work of cutting and
hewing to make it marketable, we
find but few struggling inferior
clumps and small tracts. There
are no longer any forests Of pine,
no longer any unbroken tracts of
timber in the county, and year by
year the mills grow fewer and their
scope of varieties of timber to be-
sawed wider. The pines are fast
disappearing from this section of
the country, and in their place
farms are growing up. Unlike
most other trees the pine is not
reproductive; scientists are of the
opinion that our immense pine
forests were not in existence when
Columbus discovered America.
Considering that the average age
of pine tree is three hundred
years, and that it cannot reproduce
itself, and that it evidently succeed
ed some growth that could not be
reproduced, they have the basis
for their calculations. 1t evidently
exhausts the soil of some of the
constituent elements necessary for
its growth leaving it, however, in
a condition to grow various species
of hard wood, the task Of repro
ducing the pine forests is hope
less one, and it is only question
Of time, when the pine lumber now
wasted in lavish prodigality will
be sought for and treasured as
relic Of priceless value. The light
ness Of the wood, the fneness of
the grain, its susceptibility to a
high polish, all render it desirable
as material for bric-a-brac. A
full-grown pine is often one hun
cred and sixty feet in height, with
out a limb for tWo-thirds of the
length; growing straight as an
arrow, with wide spreading
branches Of a somber green in
winter, and richer, brighter sum-
mer tints, it is one of natures most
beautiful objects. One who has
lived in the pineries for years, and
threaded the may intricacies Of
their forests depths, listened to the
soft signing of their summer WOO
ings, or the weird meanings on
stormy March mornings, a wild
bowling and creaking as bough
and branch clashed in winters
storms learns to love the pines,
almost as if they were human.
There is no other growth Of trees
around which romance and senti-
ment has woven such never-to-be-
forgotten stories. The oaks of
England, and the palms of the
tropics vie in vain for the suprem-
acy with the pine The primeval
forests Of pine suggest a wild,
free, rugged life typical of all that
is strongest and highest and most
enduring.
But aside from the sentimental
phases of a pine forest, its financial
worth has been 'the power behind
the throne" that has brought the
prosperity that Wood county en-
joys. About 1000 feet of logs is a
car load and when we estimate
the long logging trains, that daily
for period Of several months
each winter, carry their freight to
the various mills throughout the
county, and estimate that this has
been going on ever since railroads
were built in this section, and that
before the days of railroading the
water ways were used to transport
logs and lumber to their various
destinations one can easily see
how much the pines have been to
us. 1t is not so very many years
since in high water the river at
this point presented an active and
picturesque view, with its RATS of
lumber, and crews Of red shirted
rivermen making their way, with
cnnr orI 81, ao1rn L - +I,-o,--1, a.