Outlook of the Timber Supply. 45 



amount of fuel wood consumption and other wood cut on farmers' 

 wood-lots for home use, which in some other part of the Census is 

 valued at round $110,000,000. According to the Tenth Census, 

 our consumption of fuel wood was at that time 146 million cords, 

 or 2.9 cords per capita. Assuming a substantial per capita reduc- 

 tion of this item, owing to increased use of coal, we may still 

 place the present fuel-wood consumption at not less than 180 

 million cords. 



Now, in order to place all these items in a form which makes 

 them comparable to statements of wood production, it becomes 

 necessary to translate them into a unit measure, the cubic foot. 



Such reduction brings the consumption of material for which 

 log and bolt sizes are indispensable con.servatively to about 7 

 billion cubic feet, (probably nearer 8 billion,) and since most of 

 our fuel wood is cut from similar material, we are perfectly safe in 

 placing our total consumption of " timberwood " (over 3 in. 

 diameter) for this general discussion at not less than 25 billion 

 cubic feet, an average figure which the writer has used before as 

 sufficiently near for an average of the last decade. 



The next question is, are we increasing or decreasing our wood 

 consumption ? That, as the population increases, our total con- 

 sumption increases, will appear natural, but that the per capita 

 consumption has also constantly increased in spite of the enor- 

 mously increased production of coal, iron, steel, and the use of 

 other substitutes, will not so easily be admitted. For such an in- 

 vestigation, the defects in the gathering of census statistics above 

 cited become fatal. Nevertheless, if the disproportionate differ- 

 ence between the increase of population and of the consumption 

 is very large, we are safe at least to recognize a tendency. 



Taking the census figures as reported for the lumber industry 

 for the last five decades, the increases from decade to decade show 

 the following percents : 



Or, if we compare conditions at the beginning of the period 

 (1850) and at the end (1900), in the 50 years the population 



