Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/800

780 Looking at the map of the Upper Peninsula, the eye sees instantly that the pine-forests remain only in a comparatively small district bordering on the northern portion of Wisconsin and not easily accessible, while from that part of the State lying along the Menominee River and Green Bay, as well as along the upper shore of Lake Michigan and the southern shore of Lake Superior—in short, wherever they could be reached with facility—both the pine and hard-wood have been cleared away. There remains a belt of mingled pine and hardwood stretching across the interior of the Peninsula, and a section, consisting chiefly of hard-wood, lying in the extreme northern and northwestern portions.

These grand facts in regard to one of the principal sources hitherto of our pine-lumber are seen at a glance from the clear and well-defined maps of the forthcoming census report. Apart from such a presentation to the eye, they could not be gained without much and careful inquiry, and then the facts would make no such clear and distinct impression upon the mind as they do at once when thus mapped before the sight.

The rate at which the supply of lumber in any region is increased or diminished can not be given by a single map, or the relation of the supply to the annual demand. These facts could be presented to the eye only by a series of maps showing the areas of forest as they become changed from year to year. So, in a single page of figures accompanying each map, we have the estimated amount of merchantable timber still standing on the 31st of May, 1880, and the amount cut during the year ending with that date. The comparison of these readily gives the probable duration of the supply at the present rate of consumption. Thus the statement for Michigan is as follows: In the Lower Peninsula the amount of white pine is:

Cut for the census year ending May 31, 1880, including 2,988,600,000 shingles and 428,445,000 laths, but exclusive of 36,000,000 staves and 3,330,000 sets of headings, 4,068,773,000 feet.

It will be seen at once that, at the present rate of consumption, the white-pine lumber of the Lower Peninsula will be consumed in about seven years. It will probably last somewhat longer than this, because its increasing scarcity and the increased difficulty of procuring it on account of its remoteness from streams by means of which it might be easily floated to market, will advance the price, and thereby lessen the demand for it. The duration of the remaining pine-forests of Michigan will also be extended by the fact that the augmented price will lead to the substitution of the hard-woods for many purposes in