Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-11-14
WHITE PINE A
SCARCE ARTICLE
THIS TIMBER is FAST DTsAP-
FEARING AND is AS COSTLY
AS FINEST HARD WOODS.

Washington, D. G., Nov. 1.-THE
position which the United States has
held as a lumber-producing nation has,
perhaps, been due more to white pine
than to any otner wood. The timber
OF this valuable tree which has play
ed most important part in the mater
ial development of the nation is fast
disappearing and now it is as costly
as the finest American hardwoods.
Rev. Edward Everett Hale, the
chaplain of the senate, wno has al
ways taken an interest In forestry,
deplores the passing of white pine as
our foremost wood, and tells how in
his own life time he has seen the day
when "the masts of every vessel that
sailed the seven seas were made from
New England grown pine; while to-
day 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 a set Of book
shelves on which the cabinet maker
made price, and then asked whether
they should be of mahogany tor white
pine
The white pine production has shift
ed from New England to the lake
state, and Michigan was the leading
lumber producing state for twenty
years, from 1870 to 1890, with a
supremacy based on white pine. In
these two decades the cut was one
hundred and sixty billions Of board
feet. valued at the point of production,
at not less than two billions of dol
lars, or nearly nalf as much again as
the value derived from all the gold
| fields OF California from their discoy.
cry in the late forties until the
present. The rich forests of Michigan
were once thought inexnaustible and
| numbering continued in a most reck-
less manner for years. Suddenly the
people awoke to the fact that the
thougntless destruction Of the trees
had thrown 100000 acres on the
delinquent tax list These white pine
barrens point to the terrible penalty
of wasting 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, cost s97 to S114 thousand
board feet and the Selects" or next
lower grade cost $3.50 to s99.5O. Men
who are not yet middle-aged remember
the time when these grades could be
purchased at SIS to $25 a Thousand
feet. The present quotations on
quartered white oak, which are SIZE
to $50, offer another basis of com
parison which indicates the condition
Of the market for white pine.
The best stands of this lumber nov
in this country are in scattered sec
tons in Minnesota, New England, ant
/ parts of Idaho The species in Idaho
Is sometimes called silver pine. Some
of the country's best wnlte pine is
found on the Indian reservations IL
Minnesota and Wisconsin and scatter
ed stands are found In the state O
Wyoming, Montana, Colorado. and one
or two other states. At the presen,
rate Of cutting the tree will soon b,
/ practically a thing of the past. The
small stands in the national forests ar,
inconsiderable, but they will b.
managed with the greatest conserya
tism by the government through the
4 forest service, and through tnil
method and practice of reforestatiu1
4 1t may be hoped that the fine old tree
will furnish timber for other genera
i tiOnS