Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-03-23
INCREASE IN TIMBER VALUE.
Hardwood stumpase, Once Considered
Worthless, Now esingaaLaroa. Sums

Hardwood stumpase, Once Considered
Worthless, Now esingsa Laroe. Sums
The high price white-pine and hard
wood stumpage is commanding today
throughout the northwestern timber
growing states. calls out some inter.
esting figures showing gradual and
steady increase in prices during the
last twenty years In the lower PEN
insula of Michigan in 1870, white pine
lands sold readily at from $1.25 to $1.50
an acre for the choicest tracts located
within easy hauling distance Of nav
igable streams. In Minnesota, Wiscon-
sin and the upper peninsula pine lands
sold on a different basis, the ruling
prices being from 25 cents to 75 cents
a thousand feet. Today white pine
sells from $40 to $25 a thousand feet
in Michigan and from S. to SIS thou
sand in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
In the early days of pine numbering in
both the upper and lower peninsulas OF
Michigan, hard woods of all kinds, ex-
cepting oak and cherry, were regarded
as worthless. Cherry lumber was sold
In Buffalo and Chicago markets at
fair price to the furniture manufacture
ers, and the best grades Of white oak
found a desultory market at the lake
shipyards, where 1t was used as plank
ing in the building Of lake schooners
and steam vessels. Elm and bass
wood, now the most sought woods OF
the Michigan timber belt, were prac-
tically worthless as merchandise and
were left by the early lumbermen as
not being worth the price Of Telling
the trees and hauling them to mill.
The advent Of the bicycle is said to be
responsible for bringing elm into gen.
eral use as a merchantable wood. The
rims for bicycle wheels were made OF
rock elm and proved to be a most val
liable timber for this purpose. From
this modest beginning woodworking
concerns in all parts Of the country
gradually became acquainted with the
timber.
Fifteen years ago Michigan was the
largest exporter of square timber In the
United States Millions Of feet OF
rock elm and white pine were cut In
the forests here and shipped by boat
to the st. Lawrence river, where 1t
was RATED through to Montreal and
loaded on ocean freighters for the
Clyde and Liverpool dockyards, there
L.. oh IL h,.n1
foreign trade is now a thing Of the
past, and where there were over
fifty firms in this state fifteen
years ago engaged in the export tim
Der business, there realms today but
one man who still sends Michigan
lumber to England, Thomas Denton
of Saginaw, who was one Of the pion-
eers in the foreign trade, is still ship
per of elm and pine to English ports.
However, it is with considerable diff
ficulty that he Is able each year to
secure enough timber to supply even
small portion Of his trade, and his
operations now cover the entire state,
where a few years ago he secured most
Of the timber on the Cass and Sagi-
nav rivers.
Experienced lumbermen say that
tracts % rCre white pine are hard to
get nowadays at any price. Timber
bought at $3.50 an acre ten years ago
cannot be bought now for $50, and
even the most optimistic lumbermen In
the early days would not have ventur-
ed a prediction of such an increase
in value. The hardwood or mixed
timbers considered as possessing little
value a few years ago have since
1897 increased in value over 800 per
cent. Maple, birch, ash and even
beech, are eagerly sought, and since
the introduction Of ash, oak and maple
in the manufacture of furniture there
has been a steady market for these
woods The manufacture OF maple
flooring has also caused a large de-
mand for this class Of timber.-Mn-
waukee Sentinel.