Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1916-04-14
APRIL I'm FOREST COUNTY.

tits April the End and the sun is
shining, the water running in every
street and road throughout the county,
but there is still two feet of snow in
the heavy timber, while in the villages
the streets are now masses of mud.
Every night it freezes little and as
soon as the sun is a couple of hours
high in the morning the water begins
to run again One man, Mr.. Ward of
Carter, told me today that he had haul
ed logs continuously for seventeen
weeks this winter. This is the timber
harvest of the Northland. We should
be careful as people, not to remove
too much of our timber so as not TO
destroy the great watershed that sup
plies our rivers with water during the
dry months Have you ever observed
the giant trees wave back and fourth
during heavy wind, each time that
the tree waved back and forth it tug
ged at it's roots, and those roots kept
the ground loosened in every direction
from the tree, making the ground in
condition that it would hold water
like sponge. When land is denuded
of all it's trees, the ground becomes
hard and solid and will not soak in
and retain water, and whenever a
heavy rain falls the water rushes to
the ravines causing floods further
down country and tearing great gullies
out of cultivated land. Nowhere in
the world is this so we'll eXemplified
as in China, where, instead of the
water being conserved by forests, the
waters go tearing down, inundating
villages, and causing great floods, of
ten with heavy loss of life.
Our timber is one of the stems which
contributed to the great wealth of the
State, especially the great pine forests
that once covered much of the northern
portion of Wisconsin and altho at
rather late day, the State is wisely
irving to get some of this vast region
again re-tim bered. and with good sue
cess. The average man does not stop
to consider the vast resources of this
great State 1t is not so many years
ago since the pine timber that was
run down the various rivers to be saw
ed at the mills amounted to billion
feet each season. With the vanishing
of the pine, other varieties have come
into general use, such as Hemlock,
Birch, Maple. Spruce, Tamarack, Ce-
dar, Eastwood, Elm and some other
varieties which makes the business of
saving lumber still flourish. | have
not got the figures to tell the value of
the output of the timber in one year in
Wisconsin, or even in Forest County,
but can furnish figures for some of
our other natural resources. Between
Jan. 1st. 1911 and Jan. 1st, 1912 the
following furs were taken in Wlscon-
sin and the average prices prevailed.
Mink rs 5,OO0, average price $50 90, val
ue 1915 100000.
Muskrat 100000, average price As
cents value 1897 10000.
Skunk 800 900. average price $1.5o,
value $3.50, 10000.
Coon, Weasel, Wildcats, Fisher, Mar
tin, Otter, Foxes, etc, 500, 100000.
Total ST., ,262, 800 90.
In that year 1905 licenses were is
sued to fishermen for taking fish from
the Great Lakes, known as outlying
waters, and the value of fish taken
was valued at $500, 100000.
265,OOO hook and line fisherman,
average 20 pounds per capita $3.50, ,000.-
90.
1886 deer killed, average weight
125 pounds at Is cents per pound $141,-
2Sl.00.
In that year we had 1000 non-resi-
dent fisherman and over 500 non-resi-
dent holders of licenses to hunt small
game and deer.
1t is estimated that the visiting
sportsmen leave annually Sl5,0 900 900 in
the state of Maine and if the fish and
game are properly conserved, we will
in a very few years receive as much
money as Maine.
The total receipts to the state
through the Warden Department in
1911 was SI5o, $50 90.
Total cost of running the Depart
ment s1I3, $1,000. Balance to the good
$40, 36O.92.
There is another item of conserva-
ton which is very seldom taken into
account by the average layman, bnt
which is of utmost value to agriculture
and that is our wild birds. Every per-
son who is at all interested in agrieul-
ture should make some study of the
economic value of birds to agriculture.
A Freuch Scientist has proved TO the
satisfaction of all thinking people that
if all the birds should die at one time,
tnat in three years there would be no
human beings left on earth, with the