The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1915-06-19
LUMBER INDUSTRY
>S1|LL IMPORTANT
Popular 0c< ~ Proves Wrong
and in Mime. Second Only
to Agriculture in fveness.
HIGH WATER MARK WAS IN 1902
Bemidji Mills Among Big Establish
ments in This Section of State Saw
ing Many Million Feet Each Year

stOn Lumber company, owners of Be-
midji's large saw mills, was asked
how long the establishments here
would be kept in operation. His re-
ply was to the effect that ten years
from now will find them at work, and
that the period might possibly be ex-
tended to twelve.
His statement was but another in
dication that the lumber industry in
Minnesota is still of vast proportions
and that it is second only to agricul-
ture in productiveness.
Despite the popular impression
that the north woods have been de-
nuded and that the lumberjack is but
a memory Of a glorious past, Min
nesota is producing more lumber to-
day than it did during many of the
years when the big camps were in
operation.
The high water mark of timber
cutting was in 1902 when 4,000,000,-
900 feet were sawed and marketed
in Minnesota. Few of the previous
big years approached that record.
1914 Cut Large.
In 1914, according to figures COM
piled by William T. Cox, state for
ester, the cut was 5000, 100000 feet.
The forestry industry, says Mr..
Cox, gives employment now to 300,-
900 men in the forests and different
wood work ng establishments
throughout the state. There are ap-
proximately 1,40O camps operating
each winter in all kinds of timber
within the state, and these employ
from 10000 to 10000 men in the
woods.
On the timbered lands there still
remain about 100000 feet of
merchantable timber, and this is
worth an average stumpage value of
$4 per 1000 feet, is worth $2S0,000,-
900 to the land owners.
$630,000,000 in Wages.
When logged and manufactured
this timber will mean that $3.50, O,O0O,-
600 will be paid out in wages before
the finished product reaches the mar
ket
The approximate annual cut Of
white pine in Minnesota since 1912
has been 100000 feet annually.
There is in the vicinity of forty bill
lion feet of white and Norway pine
left standing in the state.
Is Privately Owned.
One of the features of the situa
tion in Minnesota today is the large
amount of privately owned timber
land and the large number of small
operators 1t seems that the days
of the monopoly have gone and that
an ever-increasing percentage of the
timber in the state is passing into
the control of the settler and the man
with comparatively little means.
Minnesota has changed, it seems,
from a white pine state, so far as
numbering is concerned, and is now
a mixed numbering state. The op-
erations have extended to the ex-
treme northern section of Northern
Minnesota, where the forest has a
smaller percentage Of white and Nor
way pine and larger percentage Of
other trees than in the old district
further south. The cut Of spruce,
cedar, tamarack and other similar
varieties has been increasing rapidly,
until the quantity of these species in
the form of saw logs, pulpwood, ties,
poles and posts aggregate approxl-
mately the same as the entire cut Of
white and Norway pine. In addition
a large amount of mining timber FOR
the three iron ranges is cut. Much
of this is jack-pine.
Bemidji Has Box Factory.
Another considerable item during
the last five years is the cut of box
lumber in the enormous box factories,
one of these concerns now operating
in Bemidji. They use chiefly poplar,
balsam and jack-pine. The wooden
ware concerns take substantial
amount of other material, such as
birch, poplar, bolts, Eastwood, ash
and a variety of other timber.
1T is difficult to tell" said Mr..
Cox in discussing the situation, chow
long the output Of approximately
5000, 100000 feet year can be main
tanned. Personally, I believe the
annual growth, disregarding forest
fires, is considerably more than this
amount. Taking the fires into con-
sideration, the annual growth is
probably under the annual cut. AS
a result the duration of the lumber
industry in Minnesota depends al
most entirely upon the effectiveness
of the fire prevention work." /
This statement is somewhat Of an
= Indictment of the last legislature fol-
it's niggardly policy in reducing the
appropriation for the protection OF
the states second largest industry
so as to effectively cripple the ser.
vice. ..@F.. ---'@
Mr.. Cox points out that Minnesota