Of  late  years  considerable  changes  have  been  introduced  into  Michigan  lumbering  operations  by  railroad
logging;  by  this  means  mills  are  able  to  obtain  a  constant  supply  of  logs  by  railroads  built  into  the  forest  for  the
purpose,  and  this  supply  can  be  regulated  almost  entirely  by  the  demand.  There  are  several  roads  in  different
parts  of  the  state  doing  this  business,  the  principal  being  the  Flint  and  Pere  Marquette  and  the  Lake  George  and
Muskegon  Eiver  railroads.  The  growth  of  this  business  in  the  Saginaw  valley  and  at  Muskegon,  Manistee,  and  on
the  Flint  and  Pere  Marquette  road  is  shown  by  the  following  table  extracted  from  Bradstreefs  of  February
5, 1881 :


Tears.
Saginaw  valley.
Mnskegon.
Mania  tee.
Plint  and  Pere
Maiqaette  railroad.
1865

1866

200, 000,  000
209, 000,  000
429, 207,  808
446,  960,  583
321,  300,  063
623,  397,  353
521,  796,  927
645,  285,  278
680,  979, 461
589,225,404
584,  843,  701
572,  229,  472
651,  567,  948
558,  079,  674
780, 182,  286
948, 174,  274

108,  505, 700
157,408,300
288,  502,  200
213,  692,  600
267,  789,  900
198,  863,  600
250,  000,  000
315,000,000
376,  035,  037
224,  571,  527
309,638,418
299,  525,  919
312,  285,  951
340,  990,  055
432,  431,  679
380,  000,  000

1867

1868

1869

1870

121, 221, 395
142,369,817
155,  556,  729
179,  820,  243
182, 218,  383
168, 936, 197
147,  724,  241
152,221,548
178,  543,  869
211,  722,  030
211,  971,  000

1871

1872

1873

1874 ,

1875

1876

1877

1878

1879    . . .-..
14, 357, 670
87, 485,  547

1880.
