82 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The Docks and Lumber Piles of the Port Blakely Mill. 



ration of woods and mill work is not 

 common in any other forest region. 



Many mills have been closed or 

 running on part time during the last 

 few months because the operating costs 

 often nearly equalled and sometimes 

 exceeded the sale value of the lumber. 

 Although the price of logs has been low 

 the loggers have been able to keep their 

 camps running without as great loss 

 as that sustained by the mill men since 

 loggers have been able to realize some 

 profit on their stumpage even at the 

 low price which the logs have brought. 



The condition of the lumber market 

 is reflected in the statement of an 

 official of a large plant, located on tide- 

 water, which closed down some months 

 ago. "Business conditions in the West, 

 as far as lumber goes, are poorer then 

 during the 1907-1908 panic. Our selling 

 average since May has been from $10 

 to $11.25 per M. Logs cost us about 

 $9." This condition prevails in the 

 shingle trade as well as with lumber, a 

 manufacturer recently stating that dur- 

 ing the past year his average percentage 

 of grades of shingles manufactiu-ed had 



been 95 per cent of the best and 5 per 

 cent of the second grade, although the 

 normal per cent of production should 

 have been 60 per cent and 40 per cent, 

 respectively. The company wasted 

 material that would have made the 

 extra 35 per cent of the second grade, 

 and when they offered at cost the 5 per 

 cent which they actually manufactured, 

 they could not sell them. 



A recent writer on Pacific Coast con- 

 ditions states that about 25 per cent of 

 the lumber cut of Washington and 

 Oregon goes by water to domestic and 

 foreign ports, 25 per cent is consumed 

 locally and the remainder is shipped by 

 rail to points East and South, chiefly 

 west of Denver, less than 2 per cent 

 going to points East of the Missouri 

 River. 



While softwood Itunber is marketed 

 all over the United States, the best 

 territory outside of the home states is 

 the great agricultural region of the 

 Middle West which has no forest re- 

 sources; the vast area east of Chicago 

 and north of the Ohio river, once 

 heavily forested but now largely cut- 



