Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1925-09-26
WiscOnsin's Forests
Depicting Rapidly
v;,orous and Active Forestry Pro-
- Needed in State, Says Ex-
tension Forester Wilson.

Wisconsin for twenty-six years
nos among the three leading states
hmber production. Since 1904
ne has dropped from first rank to
sa,,rtaentb the 1922 cut of lumber
to;,g the lowest since 1870, accord
mo 10 F. G. Wilson, Extension For
FER at the Wisconsin College of
Agriculture.
an estimate of the standing tim
hsr in the state, compiled by the
conservation Commission in 1923,
1;rss q total of sixteen billion feet
q saw timber or enough for only
sfteen more years at the present
,ate Of saving. But Wisconsin pulp
mills are also drawing heavily on
this snpply. 1t is evident that our
annual cut of forest products will
continue to decline rapidly, and that
any future crop must be grown,
Wilson points out. 1t is further APP
rarent he believes, that only a Wig
orous active forestry program can
improve the situation, and that fur
Their delay win prolong the period
Of low production and inevitable high
prices.
The land available for growing
timber. according to Wilson, is not
needed for other uses. In the TWEEN
" three northern counties which
lead in the volume of standing tim
ber twelve and half million acres
are bearing neither field nor forest
crops. Three counties, Douglas, Bay
field and Oneida have over 90Gc of
their land idle, while even the high
H est ranking counties have less than
half of their land producing any
thing of value from the soil, Will
son reports.
e But not all of the available forest
land is in these northern counties,
for in the remaining counties only
ID 4Og of the land was in field crops in
& 1923. Much of the untitled land in
these counties is nov in farm wood
lots which are yielding a larger in
come than is generally supposed.
II The only source of information on
this income is from the census, Will
son asserts, and every decade shows
a surprising increase, with a total
Of over sixteen and a half million
dollars in 1919, greater than that
from barley, wheat or tobacco. This
income which could and should be
Increased, he maintains, is in dan
& ger Of decreasing as result of over
cutting with no thought of securing
and protecting young growth. Our
woodlots are capable of growing
larger volume of timber of higher
quality and value. State wide care
q of existing wOodlots and the refor-
y estatOn Of idle land on farms, Will
bon believes will go long way to-
wards solving the question of fu-
lure timber supply
At present the most interesting de-
Velopment in the logging of the re-
naming virgin forest lies in selec-
i've cutting taking out the large
% trees and looping and scattering
he tops leaving the land produc-
'lye. with smaller trees to provide
Z future cut Several lumber com
Pames are trying this method on a
fnall scale Wilson reports, and they
you'd like to do more of it if the
Euolic, by using care with fire, will
V' Them for its success depends on
preventing fires until the slash" has
recayed. Since in Wisconsin only
Two percent of the forest fires of
Fn0Wn origin are caused by logging
psfatlons, it IS time to stop berating
Pc lumber men.
sound forestry cannot be put into
'aetlce until the people of Wiscon-
become forest minded, realizing
la timber is the only profitable
iOp We know of for much of our
W r. mat young growth is valuable
Aa must be cared for or there can
40 harvest, that every one loses
asn forests burn. and that we can
y reasonably expect anyone to I'M
sI'aSe the growing of timber on
re tracts while we are so GRIMM
= careless with FIRE, Wilson con-