Part 74

“California pine?” repeated Taylor, after a slight pause. “Why California? That's a long way off. And there's no market, is there? Why way out there?”

“It's cheap,” replied Orde succinctly. “I don't say it will be good for immediate returns, nor even for returns in the near future, but in twenty or thirty years it ought to pay big on a small investment made now.”

Taylor shook his head doubtfully.

“I don't see how you figure it,” he objected. “We have more timber than we can use in the East. Why should we go several thousand miles west for the same thing?”

“When our timber gives out, then we'll HAVE to go west,” said Orde.

Taylor laughed.

“Laugh all you please,” rejoined Orde, “but I tell you Michigan and Wisconsin pine is doomed. Twenty or thirty years from now there won't be any white pine for sale.”

“Nonsense!” objected Taylor. “You're talking wild. We haven't even begun on the upper peninsula. After that there's Minnesota. And I haven't observed that we're quite out of timber on the river, or the Muskegon, or the Saginaw, or the Grand, or the Cheboygan--why, Great Scott! man, our children's children's children may be thinking of investing in California timber, but that's about soon enough.”

“All tight,” said Orde quietly. “Well, what do you think of Indiana as a good field for timber investment?”

“Indiana!” cried Taylor, amazed. “Why, there's no timber there; it's a prairie.”

“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.”

“What kind of a proposition have you?” asked Taylor after a pause.

“I can get ten thousand acres at an average price of eight dollars an acre,” replied Orde.

“Acres? What does that mean in timber?”

“On this particular tract it means about four hundred million feet.”

“That's about twenty cents a thousand.”

Orde nodded.

“And of course you couldn't operate for a long time?”

“Not for twenty, maybe thirty, years,” replied Orde calmly.

“There's your interest on your money, and taxes, and the risk of fire and--”

“Of course, of course,” agreed Orde impatiently, “but you're getting your stumpage for twenty cents or a little more, and in thirty years it will be worth as high as a dollar and a half.” [*]