Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/632

 508 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [Feb., makes further calculations, demonstrat- ing the fact, that, at the present rates of increase, it would require but thirty years, for the Chicago market alone, to exhaust all the Pine lands of Michigan, the greatest Pine producing State in the Union. Says that vigorous writer, James Parton, in his description of Chicago: " There is one commodit}'', in which Chicago deals, that makes a show pro- portioned to its importance. Six hun- dred and fourteen millions of feet of timber, equal to about fifty millions of ordinary Pine boards, which Chicago sold last J'ear, (1866,) cannot be hidden in a corner. " The prairies, to which Nature has been so variously bountiful, do lack this first necessity of the settler ; and it is Chicago, that sends up the Lake for it ; and supplies it to the prairies. " Miles of timber yards extend along one of the forks of the river ; and the harbor is choked with arriving timber vessels ; timber trains shoot over the prairies, in every direction. To econo- mize transportation, they are now be- ginning to despatch timber in the form of ready-madejiouses. There is a firm in Chicago, which is happy to furnish cottages and villas, school-houses, stores, taverns, churches, court-houses or towns — wholesale or retail — and to forward them, securely packed, to any part of the country. " No doubt we shall soon have the exhilaration of reading advertisements of these town-makers, to the effect, that orders for the smallest villages will be thankfully received ; county towns made to order ; a metropolis furnished with punctuality and despatch; any town on our list sent, carriage-paid, on receipt of price ; rows of cottages always on hand ; churches in every style. "N. B. — Clergymen and others are requested to call, before purchasing else- where." This quotation merely by the way, however, as it is rather a laudation of Chicago enterprise, than a proof of our assertions. As has been already said, the State of Michigan is, by far, the greatest Pine- growing and Lumber-manufacturing State in the Union. It contains 56,243 square miles, or 35,995,520 acres, which is indeed a large area, although it must be borne in mind that it is by no means all Lumber-pro- ducing. The population is, as yet, sparsely scattered over the country ; but that it is showing a considerable annual percentage of increase may be seen by the following : Population in 1830 30,000 " 1840 212,000 " 1850 398,000 " 1860 749,000 Taking the last ten years as a basis, we find the ratio to be 88 per cent., which would give us about 1,400,000 as the population of the State in 1870. Thus much for the population ; we may have occasion to refer again to it ; but, in the meanwhile, will take a glance at the timber product. In the Saginaw Y alley, the great manufacturing district of the State, during 1867, upwards of 420,000,000 feet were manufactured, by all the mills there situated, 82 in number. By reference to the trade of this flourishing region, for that year, we ar- rive at the following result: Number of mills, 82. Saws, 183. Capacity of mills, 826,209,099 feet. Capital invested, $3,428,500. Lumber manufactured, 423,963,190 feet. Logs in boom, 17,304,605 feet. Men employed, 2,402. Lath manufactured, 63,870,875 pieeps. During the same year, 115,293,000 shingles were manufactured in Saginaw Valley and on the Bay Shore, of which 105,983,275 were shipped to various points, East and West, the balance being held over till 1S68. At the close of the