Condon globe. (Condon, Gilliam Co., Or.) 189?-1919, 1904-09-08
FoRrsrs OF THE NORTHWEST.
Minnesota stln Has Millions Of Feet Of
Lumber Uncut.

Minnesota stln Has Millions Of Feet Of
Lumber Uncut
The chief IRE warden Of Minnesota
in his annual report says that the
standing timber In the State is worth
easily $4,000. 900. and it is this prop
erty which the IRE warden system
seeks to protect according to the New
York Pest. The State itself owns
2,50o, 600 acres Of land, part OF which
is forested and protected by the nre
warden system. The State last No
vember sold 100000 worth Of timber
from its own land, and has In all re
eeived $a.oooo0o for just the timber
sold from lands 1t received as a gift
from the United States. The State
will continue for mahy years to sell
timber OF various kinds from these
lands, and is on this particular account
deeply interested in preventing dam
age by forest fires. The local service
in preventing and lighting nres, both
forest and prairie. Is rendered by the
town supervisors, who are ex-offieio
fire wardens. and by those whom they
summon to assist, and in unorganized
territory by IRE wardens specially ap-
pointed. The service Is paid for in the
first instance by the counties In which
II is rendered, and the State pays to
the counties two-thirds Of such ex-
pense.
One Of the richest pine timber re
gions Of the Northwest was the Sagt-
nav and Huron shore districts OF
Michigan. In 1898 there was cut in
that district S5S0O0000 feet Of pine,
but the supply OF pine timber had so
diminished during the next ten years
that In 1903 only 5S,0Oo,000 feet were
cut The number OF feet OF pine logs
cut in Minnesota the season Of 1902
1908 was 1000 100000. The amount of
pine lumber cut in the year 1908 by
the mills In the districts of Duluth,
Minneapolis, above Minneapolis and
st. Crolx was 2,20O, $4,000 feet. A
comparatively small amount of this
may have been from the forests of
Wisconsin. A liberal estimate places
the remaining standing pine in Mime
sofa at $4,000, 100000 feet. ANY one
can Judge for himself" says the war
den, therefore, how soon this forest
capital will be exhausted and say
whether 1t is not time to begin sys-
tenn Of reforestation by utilizing waste
land in the production of pine timber"
In summing up his report the war
den says: "What forestry means for
Minnesota is simply this: The re-
naming original pine timber will be
cut in the next fifteen years. Some
second-growth pine, II protected from
fire, will then be cut from year to
year, but Il will not be as good as the
original growth, and there will not be
enough of 1t for home consumption.
Lumber will be dearer and our great
lumber industry viii decline. There
are, however. fully three million acres
of waste land In scattered localities,
which II planted with pine would In
tune become normal forests, yielding
forever a supply sufficient for our
home need. Such forests would by
their growth perpetually yield a net
annual revenue on the capital invest
ed of 8 per cent, compound interest,
besides many indirect benefits. On
such waste sandy land it will take on
an average about eighty years for a
crop of pine trees to grow to mer-
chantable size. individuals cannot
walt so long for a crop and they will
not engage In the business. The State,
to whom time does not occur, must
undertake the work by purchasing
waste land and planting 1t with pine.
The Minnesota forestry board is ready
to go to work, but until there is some
man in the legislature who will make
forestry a speciality and fight for 1t
with energy we shall not get the nee
essary money for forestry"