Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1907-11-14
white Pine
How This Valuable Wood tias Dis.
appeared. It's Present
Great Cost.


States las held as a lumber produc-
ing nation has, perhaps, been due
more to white pine than to any other
wool. Tie i'lnUer vi this valuable
tree which has played a most import
ant part in the material develop
ment of the nation is fast disappear
ing and now it is as costly as the fin
est A American hardwOods.
Rev. Edward Everett Hale, the
hdplain of the Senate, who has al
ways taken an interest. in fort strv,
deplores the passing of white pine as
our foremost wood, and tells how in
his own lifetime he has 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
good sized spar" He tells also, to
illustrate the increasing COST of the
wood. that he ordered set of book
shelves on which the -ca abiret n'aber
made price, and then asked wi etl-
er they should be Of mahogany or
white pine.
The white piuc prouuciion has
shifted from New England to the
Lake States, and vi ictigan was the
leading lumber producing state for
twenty years, iIon- 1917 ~ 1850, with
a supremacy based on white pine. In
these two decades iile cut was ibU oil
lions Of board fee, valued, at the
point vi prOuucCiUn, aJ nOL less Llan
two billions of dollars, or nearly half
as much again as the value derived
from all the gold fields of Ca alifornia
from their discovery in the late for
ties until the present. The rich for
ests of Michigan were once thought
| inexhaustible and numbering con-
tined In a mos reckless manner for
years. Suddenly the people awoke to
the fact !ha. the thoughtlrss de-
struction OF the trees had thrown
5000. 200 of acr,s oE .le do!inq3:Ht
tax list. These white pine barrens
point to the terrible penalty of vast
| ing the forest resources which should
have been the heritage Of all future
generations.
An idea Of the increasing scarcity
of white pine timber is given by the
New York F. o. B. quotations, on a
basis of carload lots. ''Uppers'' of
the best grade, cOsu $97 to SlI4 a
Thousand board feet and the "se-
lects" or next lower grade cost $40. so
! to $99 SO. Men who are not yet mid
die aged remember the time when
these grads could be purchased at
sl5 TO 1926 thousand feet. The pres
ent quotations on qnartered white
oak, which are $75 70 $50, offer an
other basis of comparison which in
dicates tile condition of the market
for white pine.
Tie best stands of mis- timber now
in this country are in scattered Sec
tions in Minnesota, New England.
and parts Of Idaho. The spscle- in
Idaho is sometimes called silver
pine. Some nf tile cOuutry's best
whit" pine | found on the innian
reservations in Minnrsots and Wis
cOnsin and scattered stands are found
jn the States of Wyoming, Montana,
Colorado, and one or two other
states. At n" pr sent rate If cut
ting he tree will soon be practically
a thing of the past Tie sual1
stands in the MAJ iOnaI forests are in
cOnsdelarl but they will be man
aged with the greatest cOnserva ism
by the Government through the For
est Service, ami through his method
and rrac ice nf reforesta, ion 1t may
be hoped hat the nne old tree will
furnish tim ber for other general ious.
Losses For "Exposed" Cattle
Wells county stOckiuen are exDet ienc-