Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-08-09
A WEEK In THE NORTH WOODS
ON ARPIN TIMBER LANDS,

Somehow the big woods are shrivel-
ing. The wilderness is losing ground
every day. The bome-makerS are
passing that way and the forest is
giving way to the field. The lumber
jack has seen his best and his widest
days. The old Indian trail has be-
come the highway of civilization.
Il was pleasant day that 1 left the
500 railroad at Bruce and turned
North for weeks wandering in the
wilderness. The finest fields of oats
ever saw in any state were between
Bruce and Atlanta. The few farms
in this section are new but the soil is
good. Atlanta is a model saw-mill
town of well painted houses and a
general air of thrift and good order.
The clubhouse for the accommoda-
tiOn Of the men employed in the saw
mill and planing-mill would De a
credit to any town. 1t has electric
lights and steam heat, piano, billiard
SocAN ood TIC OCIlot lOIGSU Is
but mile TO the North.
A well equipped logging train makes
two trips day to the logging camps
and, it was on this train, that the
fireman kindly invited me to share
his seat. There is no better way of
seeing country than from the cab
window of locomotive. The splendid
hardwood forest seemed to be at it's
best. The clearing for the spurs off
from the main line was Only wide
enough to admit the train so that
many times the green bougbs of the
maple, birch and Eastwood come in
contact with the cab window.
Tie cool, dense shade, the spicy
odor of the boundless wood and fresh
cut timber, the quick and constant
change of scenery. the abundance of
wild game, made the trip one of deep
interest. The forest is the most
highly organized portion of the
vegetable world. 1t is more than a
collection of trees. 1t has a popuIa-
tion Of animals and plants peculiar to
itself, soil largely of its own making,
and climate different in many ways
from that of the open country.
Lumbermen regard timbered land
as an investment from which but one
crop is to be harvested. 1t should be
treated as a working capital to pro-
duce successive crops. This logging
railroad takes US through a tract of
10000 acres Of hardwood timber in
Rusk and Sawyer Counties, The
happy Northern song bird, the wood
mans axe and saw, the falling trees,
and the noisy logging train is all there
is TO break the stiffness. The lumber
man is not forester, he barYeSts but
he does not SOW, he takes only what
he can utilize or sell, he leaves behind
about One-half the crop. The average
timber through this hardwood belt
has about thirty-Seven merchantable
trees to the acre. 1t requires five of
these trees to make thousand feet of
high-grade lumber. The average acre
contains one hundred straight, thrifty
trees of from three to six inches in
diameter, consisting largely of maple,
birch and Eastwood. Twenty per
cent of these young, thrifty trees are
destroyed by the woodsman, leaving
eighty trees to the acre that, if pro-
perly cared for, would in from twenty
five to thirty years, yield double the
crop that is being taken from the
land and at probably more than
double the present price.
Excepting China all civilized
nations care for the forest. Until re-
Gently the United States ranked
nearly with China in this reSGect.
We now have sixty two forest reserves
containing over siXty-three million
acres. but they are in high mountain
Gus regions. Next to the earth itself,
the forest is the most useful servant
of man. No one can really know the
forest without feeling the gentle in
fluence of one of the kindiieSt and
strongest parts of nature. From
every point of view it is one of the
most helpful friends Of man. Perhaps
no other natural agent has done so
much for the human race and has
been so reeklesSly used and so little
understood.
OF the three hundred men employed
by the Arpin Hardwood Company, of
Atlanta, many Of them have purchased
from eighty to One-hundred and sixty
acres after the SaW-timber has been
removed, paying this Company from
$500 to $500 per acre: and then sell
ling enough birch and maple cord
wood to pay for the land. The great
abundance of game, especially deer,
through this country is due largely to
the splendid growth of clover and
timothy to be found wherever there
is an opening in the woods. There is
no trouble TO see deer and plenty of
them any morning or evening. A
band of nine crossed the track Just
ahead of the train, Their tracks are
to be seen everywhere.
Civilization will soon subdue the
wilderness; then it will be the ideal
home of the dairyman. There are two
distinct classes of settlers in a new
country; in the West they settle up
the country, in Northern Wisconsin
they settle down in the country. The
difference between a period of settl-
ing up and period of settling down
is the difference between adventure
and development. This spirit has had
much to do with the prosperity of the
north woods country.
Into this timbered country came a
few hardy pioneers in the early
seventies. Here they found fuel and
shelter free of cost. The forests con-
tanned game IN abundance. from the