378 State Horticultural Society. 



prove wrong- his position of ten years ago. The gathering and the in- 

 terpretation of statistics of forest industries are beset with more dif- 

 ficulties than are encountered in most other industries, largely because of 

 their very diversified character and the very scattered and inaccessible loca- 

 tions of their sources. All census statistics have the tendency to remain 

 below the truth — "some little pigs will not let themselves be counted" — 

 and the statistics of forest products are probably more subject to this 

 defect than others. 



The final object of census statistics is, of course, to furnish basis 

 i:ot only for comparison between the various industries, bring out their 

 relative importance, but also to record the progress of development from 

 decade to decade. Unfortunately for this last object especially, the ab- 

 sence of a uniform method of enumeration from census to census, added 

 to the variable success of enumerators in securing information, render 

 the data of uneven value. A direct comparison would lead to erroneous 

 conculsions. 



With this warning as to the mathematical use and interpretation of 

 available forest statistics, we propose to present the data of the last census, 

 and draw our conculsions as to the probable status of the timber-supply 

 question in United States. 



The census of 1900, however, for the first time, seems to have secured 

 tolerably full, although still incomplete, statistics of the United States, 

 which show that the estimate of the writer made a few years ago of 

 40,000,000,000 feet, b.m., annual consumption, inclucding all material re- 

 quiring log and bolt size, is as near the truth as it can be possibly stated. 

 The saw mill product is placed by the census as 35,000,000,000 feet, pre- 

 cisely the amount which the writer deducted from the saw mill capacity 

 in 1898, and allowance of 5,000,000,000 feet for amounts not enumerated, 

 such as staves, headings, railroad ties, round and hewn timber used 

 locally, telegraph poles, etc., is, indeed, hardly sufficient. Since, how- 

 ever, in the census statistics there are undoubtedly duplications, we may 

 perhaps still adhere, for all purposes of economic discussion, to our round 

 figure of 40,000,000,000 as representing fairly the present annual con- 

 sumption. The summary of the 1900 census of the saw mills, planing 

 mills and timber camps stands as follows, saw mill product, output of plan- 

 ing mills, custom work, etc., and product of timber camps being mixed 

 together — the number of establishments (reporting or existing) 33,035: 



Capital invested $611,61 1,524 



Salaried officials, 12,530 11,260,608 



Wage earners, 283,260 104,640,591 



Miscellaneous expenses I7.73i'59i 



Cost of materials used 317,923,548 



Value of products— total 566,832,984 



