Outlook of the Timber Stt-Pply. 43 



the last Census and draw our conclusions as to Wv^ probable status 

 of the timber supply question in the United States. 



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

 tolerably full, although still incomplete, statistics of the lumber in- 

 dustry of the United States, which show that the estimate of the 

 writer, made a few years ago, of 40 billion feet B. M. annual 

 consumption, including all material requiring log and bolt size, is 

 as near the truth a« it can possibly be stated, for the saw mill 

 product is placed by the Census as 35 billion feet, precisely the 

 amount which the writer deduced from the reported saw mill 

 capacity in 1898,^ and the allowance of five billion feet for unenu- 

 merated amounts, staves and headings, railroad ties, round and 

 hewn timber used locally, telegraph poles, etc., is, indeed, hardly 

 sufficient. Since, however, in the census statistics there are un- 

 doubtedly duplications, we may perhaps still adhere, for all pur- 

 poses of economic discussion, to our round figure of forty billion 

 as representing fairly the present annual consumption. The 

 summary of the Census (1900) 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 : 



Number of establishments (reporting or existing?) 33,o35 



Capital invested 1611,611,524 



Salaried officials, 12,530 11,260,608 



Wage earners, 283,260 104,640,591 



Miscellaneous expenses I7.73i.5i9 



Cost of materials used 317,923,548 



Value of products, total 566,832,984 



Saw mill |422,8i2,o6i 



Planing mill 107,622,519 



Timber camps 36,398,404 



Quantity of sawed lumber, M. ft. B. M 35,084,166 



Value of same 1390.489,873 



The figure of $318,000,000 represents the cost of the logs and 

 all other materials at the various mills which produced the 35 

 billion feet of lumber and whatever other products were produced 

 in the mills. Discrepancies between the total reported output of 

 the logging camps (26 billion feet) and that of the saw mills 

 amounting to nearly 40 per cent. (!), are explained by the com- 



^ H. Doc. 181, 55th Cong., 3d Sess., p. 119. 



