The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-11
THE LUMBER CENTER
IS MOVING SOUTH, WONDERFUL
 ACTIVITIES
Furniture Industry May Follow in the Same Direction--Areas in Northwest are Almost
 Played Out.

New York Special to Baltimore Herald.
 The permanent closing of the great mills of the Menominee River Lumber Company at Marinette, Wis, ten days ago sfter half ascentury of constant sery- ice, was an interesting and significant event in one of the chief industries of the country. In a word. 1t was an epoeh- making step in the moving of the center of the lumber industry from Northern Michigan and Wisconsin to the great hardwood forests of the Mississippi Val ley. s'N
 The Marinette mills were largely the D operty of Jesse Spalding of Chisago and represented the foundation of his present large fortune. Their closing in- al ates the exhaustion of tract of 160. 900 acres of timber land in Northern Michi- gan.
 When Mir. spaldirg and others first be- gan cutting on the Menominee River the pine forests of Wisconsin and Mich gan were practically virgin and they had merely to pick and choose from the finest pin wo ds on the continent. NH after mill started up on tho ri.er and at Sur geon Bay. at Cedar River, Ford River and sco es of ether points.
 Millions of logs were sent down stream every year and mile after mile of timber was exhausted. Fire was responsible for much havoc and now the great tract which MT. Spald!ng controlled Is barren of pine.
 A tract of 10000 acres of hardwood remains. but this win be sold standing
 Since the Spa ding Company was form ed 50 years ago it has cut more than Q bill on feet of pine and had but one strike. Among Its employees who were thrown out of work last week were some who hal been with the company more than 40 years.
 It is proposed to use the site of the mill. If possible, for a manufacturing D ant of some kind, In the hope that Marin tte may survive the loss of her lumber trade, but 1t Is to be doubted if much will come of the plan.
 The story of the Spalding mills Is that ot countless o similar enterprise. through. wisconsin. And the lumber mills in the hardwood forests of the Mississippi have increased faster than the mills of North ern Michigan and Wisconsin have died Along the river. specially in the low lands Of Arkansas, are hundreds of miles or nne timber-oak of twenty-onc vari. ties, hard pine, red gum. cottonwood, hickory and dozens of other woods.
 For years. red gum was considered worthless. One day some experimenter found that it takes as fine a polish as mahogany. and it is now growing more and more In favor for the manufacture Of mahogany and cherry veneers.
 Cottonwood was considered out of the question for practical use because it warps under moisture or under the rays of the sun. But cottonwood, 1t has been discovered is an excellent box wood and useful for all sheltered and interior places. the sheathing of houses, interior floors and the like.
 Yellow pine, 1t is now generally known has durability and iS hiA Of finish that gives it a high place among the hard woods. For interior finish and hardwood floors 1t Is attacking the su. premaey of maple and birch in nearly all of the lumber markets of the coun- try.
 The development of this great field has been marvellous and will be more so. The great forests of the Mississippi low Is on level ground and has access by water to the whole heart of the conti- nent-Memphls. New Orleans, Cairo, St. Louis, St. Paul. Pitts5urg CinSinnati.
 Capital. much of 1t Chicago capital formerly employed in the northern ium- Der fields. is rushing in: At Luxor. Ark. Si ons eoo Chicago man, A: s; Wolyertor, hsS nco feet day and loading his product on barges for shipment to Cairo and Chi- cago and Pittsburg. At Paragould, thir- ty-flve miles away, the Armour Company
 
 making all its own boxes for its pro- visions.
 Within five miles of the wolverton plant are thirteen large mills. Another good example of the booming industry is Wolf River, Memphis. whither millions of feet are rafted annually, which is now the largest producing hardwood lumber market in the world. Last year 30, 900 freight cars were needed to carry the product away.
 This passing southward of the lumber producing center gives rise to some in- teresting speculations. The great lum- ber areas of Northern Michigan and Wisconsin made Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin the great furniture manufac- turing field of the Western hemisphere.
 With the exhaustion of these Northern lumber areas and the opening up of tn splendid resources of the Mississippi for est, what Is to prevent the great fur niture manufacturing industry from nov ing Southward in it's turn? That ia must so move, and that the movement will begin soon. seems inevitable. The day will be a bad one for Chicago and Mil- waukee.
 It does not require great powers of ina gination to look still further into the future. Our magnificent northern for ests lasted almost exactly half a cen- tury from the time the echo of the first steam saw rang through them.
 ne Miesissippi forests are vaster. but the demands for lumber is advancing with giant leaps and bounds before which a few thousand souare miles of forest area are a little thine. Give the Mis- sisslppi lumber areas the productive life of the Wisconsin and Michigan forests. Where is the country's lumber of the tive enty-hrst century to come from?
 The forests of the Southeastern States -Georgia. the Carolinas. may be disre- garded likewise those of the far North west. There remains the Dominion of Canada. with great lumber resources. but unfortunately Canada will probably have her own ideas about exploiting these resources.
 The noint is that the forests of Wis ccnrin and Michigan might still be four ishinP if the science of forestry had