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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



government will take steps to insure a 

 continuous supply of timber sufficient 

 for the country's needs. In 1909, 22 

 per cent of the timber in the United 

 States was in the South, and 57 per cent 

 west of the Rockies, largely on the 

 Pacific Coast. 



At present the yellow pine forest 

 supplies 37 per cent of the lumber 

 manufactured and Douglas fir 9 per cent 

 At the 1913 rate of cutting, the former 

 will be exhausted in twenty years. 

 The West Coast must then supply 

 practically all of the country's needs, 

 besides all over-seas demands. 



The kind of limiber used in any local- 

 ity is largely determined by sttmipage 

 cost and freight. White pine reaches 

 the market on an average freight rate 

 of about $3 per thousand. Yellow pine 

 pays about $7.50. Formerly West 

 Coast woods paid $23 to New York. 

 Now the canal permits western mills 

 to ship by water for half the rail freight, 

 and this, together with lower stumpage 

 values, enables them to compete with 

 northern and southern woods within 

 a zone as far back from the Atlantic as 

 Indianapolis. The southern lumber dis- 

 placed will be diverted to foimer 

 territory of western lumber. Lower 

 freight rates will not materially increase 

 use. Other means must be found, 

 and the lumberman's greatest problem 

 is "how to sell more lumber." 



Increased use of any species of wood 

 benefits manufacturers of other species. 

 There must be cumtdative value to the 

 industry if we extend the use of yellow 

 pine paving blocks, cypress tanks, 

 spruce pulp, western pine sash and doors, 

 Douglas fir construction and car ma- 

 terials, redwood silos and cedar shingles. 

 But the exploitation of any species 

 must not make conflict between woods 

 which will actually promote the use 

 of substitutes. All lumber interests 

 should unite in a campaign to revive 

 old uses, discover new uses, combat 

 unfair encroachments, support wood 

 construction and secure to lumber its 

 deserved use as a building material. 



A BIT OF HISTORY 



Products of the forest have taken a 

 most intimate part in the life of this 

 nation. We have been prodigal users 



of wood. The per capita consimiption 

 of lumber doubled in fifty years, reach- 

 ing 500 feet per annum in 1909. The 

 production of forty-five billion feet in 

 that year was the largest in the history 

 of any country. Lumber manvifactur- 

 ing has always been pioneering. It has 

 preceded and closely followed early 

 immigrants in their search for new 

 homes. It has served the settler for 

 fencing and buildings. It has furnished 

 the ties, bridge materials and building 

 lumber for the first railroad. It has 

 supplied limiber to build the little towns 

 which have appeared by hundreds as 

 civihzation pushed its way southward 

 and westward. 



The demand for limiber prior to 1906 

 fluctuated ; yet the output was absorbed 

 and it yielded a profit to the hardy 

 woodsmen, particularly of the North, 

 whose courage and ingenuity gave to 

 their fellows so essential a product. A 

 period of unprecedented prosperity, 

 augmented by the San Francisco and 

 Valparaiso earthquakes of 1906, stim- 

 ulated the demand for Itunber, and 

 consequently the price ran high. Con- 

 servationists sounded alarms of fast- 

 disappearing supply. Investors turned 

 to the west in a rush to secure a foothold. 

 Stumpage was cheap. Much of it was 

 bought by lumber men of the North 

 who, after years of struggle, were 

 realizing handsome returns from their 

 white pine, owing to constantly in- 

 creasing consimiption and an unimpaired 

 demand. Southern operators were do- 

 ing the same with yellow pine, and all 

 firmly believed that history would 

 repeat itself in the west. They urged 

 the younger generation to follow in their 

 footsteps as Imnber makers. vSpecula- 

 tors, from all classes, lured by the pros- 

 pect of immediate riches, bought timber. 

 Forests which a few years before were 

 vacant public domains suddenly became 

 valuable. The second transfer took 

 place. Bull team loggers sold for a 

 substantial price per thousand feet 

 timber bought for a few hundred dollars 

 per quarter section, and became rich 

 overnight. In this period the public 

 came to believe that ownership of trees 

 meant unavoidable wealth. 



The second owners after sale by the 

 government eagerly awaited another 



