"
"There used to be. And all the southern Michigan farm belt was
timbered, and around here. We have our stumps to show for it, but
there are no evidences at all farther south. You'd have hard work,
for instance, to persuade a stranger that Van Buren County was once
forest."
"Was it?" asked Taylor doubtfully.
"It was. You take your map and see how much area has been cut
already, and how much remains. That'll open your eyes. And
remember all that has been done by crude methods for a relatively
small demand. The demand increases as the country grows and methods
improve. It would not surprise me if some day thirty or forty
millions would constitute an average cut.* 'Michigan pine
exhaustless!'--those fellows make me sick!"
* At the present day some firms cut as high as 150,000,000 feet.
"Sounds a little more reasonable," said Taylor slowly.
"It'll sound a lot more reasonable in five or ten years," insisted
Orde, "and then you'll see the big men rushing out into that Oregon
and California country. But now a man can get practically the pick
of the coast. There are only a few big concerns out there."
"Why is it that no one--"
"Because," Orde cut him short, "the big things are for the fellow
who can see far enough ahead.
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