The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1907-12-13
WHITE PINE DISAPPEARING.
But Some of the Best Stands Are NOW
Found in New England.

The position which the United States
has held as a lumberproduclng, nation
has. perhaps, been due more to white pine
than to any other wood. The timber OF
This valuable tree which has played most
important part in the material develop
ment of the nation Is last disappearing
and now it is as costly as the hhest
American hardwoods. =, -,
Rev. Edward Everett Hale; the chap,
lain of the Senate, who has always taken i
an interest in forestry, deplOres the pass
inc Of white pine as our foremost wood,
and tells how in his own lifetime he mas
seen the day when 'the masts OF every
vessel that sailed the Seven Seas were
made from New England grown pine;
while TODAY very little white pine is cut
in New England big enough to furnish
pood-sized spar" He tells also, to IL
lustrate the increasing cost OF the Woou,
that he ordered a set OF book sheNes oli
which the cabinet-maker made a price,
and then asked whether they shouio oe
of mahogany or white pine .,;s.oa
from New England to the Lake states
and and Michigan was the leading lumber
producing state for twenty years, from
ls7O TO 1890. with a supremacy based on
rrb;ta nine, In these two decades the cut
was 100 billions of board feet, valued; at
fine point of production, at no less Hhal
two billions of dollars, or nearly nan as
much again as the value derived from an
the gold fields of California from 'n III
discovery in the late tortles. until tne
present. The rich forests OF MlGn I
were once thought inexhaustlole anu iu,,
herring continued in most reckless man
nor for wears. Suddenly the people, aWoke
10 the Fact that the thoughtless dest t I6o
ton 20 Of the trees had thrown 6,og0'ooo
Of IA acres on the delinquent tax list. these
Into nine barrens point to the terriple
'nenaIty of wasting the forest, resources
p Which should have been the heritage OF
all future generations. :.,, of
An idea of the increasing scarcity Oh
white pine timber is given by the NeT
York F. 0. B. quotations, on q 9as as.J 10
carload lots. Clippers" OF the pesu er fat
cost S97 to Sll4 thousand, board leee
cosI r. "selects" or next lower grade
anu anu s s1,1 IN TO $3.50. Men who are not
v ,of n,iddle-aged remember the time wn n,
fh ho GRADES could be purchased at slo
70 cox y thousand feet. The present quo
t ~ On ouartered white oak, whlcns
oro e75 to $50. offer another basis OF
oo,nnar ;son which indicates the conditioh
Of Ike market for white pine.
The hest stands of this timber now IN IN
this country are in scattered sectlons ~ ~
Minnesota. New England, ana paris %
Idaho. The species In Idaho Is so tha
c clmnf best white pine is found on the
f foSian reservations in Minnesota and Z
Wisconsin and scattered stands are 1ouhu
y; mi fbe states of Wyoming Montana, Coio.
II, rad I,e and n one or two other states, AZ
the present rate of cutting the n tire tree n wi
soon 500 be practically thing OF the o pas.,
The small stands in the 4hd nat wl be man man,
aged with the greatest Greatest the Forest Ser
t tne and through this method and p II 6
t tlre fine fir old trees will furnish timber for
other generations.