ANNUAL CONSUMPTION OF WOOD 



STATISTICS have been compiled 

 by the P'^orest Service which 

 show for the lirst time precisely 

 how the lumber produced in the 

 country is utilized. About 45 billion 

 feet of lumber of all kinds is the annual 

 production in the United Stales; of 

 this nearly 25 billion feet, board meas- 

 ure, are further manufactured, the 

 other portion remaining for rough con- 

 struction luml)er and for similar pur- 

 poses. This is exclusive of material 

 which reaches its final use in the form 

 of fuel, railroad ties, posts, poles, pulp- 

 wood, cooperage, wood distillates, and 

 the barks and extracts demanded by the 

 tanning industry. 



The work of collecting and compiling 

 the figures extended over a consider- 

 able period and was carried out State 

 by State ; but as one full year was made 

 the basis of statistics in each State, the 

 total is a fair average of the use of lum- 

 ber in further manufacture in the whole 

 country. iJetween 50 and 60 per cent 

 of the lumlier produced is subject to 

 further manufacture. In preparing the 

 figures in this way, however, it should 

 be remembered that considerable mate- 

 rial reaches shops and factories in the 

 form of logs, bolts, and billets without 

 having ])assed through sawmills, and 

 while this material is included in these 

 statistics this fact should be remem- 

 bered in comparing statistics with those 

 of lumber production. 



Nearly or quite 100 different woods 

 are used in this country under their 

 own names, while an unknown number 

 find their way to shops and factories 

 without l)cing identified or separatelv 

 listed, except under general names. In 

 quantity the softwoods, the needle-leaf 

 or coniferous trees, are most important, 

 but there is a greater number of species 

 among the hardwoods, or broadleaf 

 trees. Yellow pine comes first with 

 more than 8 billion feet, followed by 

 white pine with '.\ billion, and Douglas 

 fir with a little more than 2 billion. It 

 should 1)0 understood, however, that the 

 term "yellow pine" includes several 

 species the three most important of 

 which are longleaf, shortleaf and lob- 



lolly. Oak. including all species, has 

 nearly 2 billion feet, and is the most 

 important hardwood. Maple comes 

 next. 



Dogwood comes about halfway down 

 (he list with more than 7 million board 

 feet, and of those species mentioned 

 'i'urkish boxwood conies last, with less 

 than 30 thousand feet, followed by 

 many others too insignificant to list but 

 making a total of all kinds of more than 

 a million feet. Of the native species, 

 laurel, holly and yucca fall very near 

 the foot of the list in relative quanti- 

 ties used. 



Fifty-five principal industries use 

 wood as raw material. Their relative 

 importance is hard to indicate, because 

 (juantity alone is not in all cases a cri- 

 terion of value of an industry to the 

 community in which it is situated, nor 

 to the country as a whole. 



More than one-half of the total con- 

 sumption consists of planing mill prod- 

 ucts, the largest items of which are 

 fiooring, siding, ceiling, and finishing. 

 The next industry, in point of quantity 

 of wood used, is the manufacture of 

 bo.xes and crates, .\early four times as 

 much wood is demanded by makers of 

 boxes and crates, as by the builders of 

 steam and electric cars, which come 

 next, anrl fi\e fold the amount that goes 

 into furniture, which in turn leads 

 vehicle manufacture. Vehicles demand 

 surprisingly large supplies of wood, and 

 much of it must be of a high class in 

 order to meet requirements for frames, 

 gears, and bodies. 



Chairs, listed separately from furni- 

 ture, come after noxclties and su])plies 

 for dairymen. i)oultry keepers, and 

 apiarists and just before handles and 

 musical instruments. About midway 

 'own the list come pumps and wood 

 pipes. Among the products important 

 enough to list separately are canes and 

 uml)rclla sticks, brooms, firearms, arti- 

 licial limbs, and tobacco pipes. 



The a])])ortionment of wood among 

 tlie \ari()ns industries grades from 

 planing null products, which take most, 

 down to aero])lanes and drv kilns, at the 

 bottom of the list. 



897 



