PRI\'ATK FORKSTRY 115 



ada. American capital is going into that country to build mills to supply 

 this country with wood pulp and paper. Within the last lO years new 

 mill development for news-print manufacture has almost wholly ceased, 

 while in Canada during that time no less than 28 mills have been built, 

 largelv with American capital. It w^ould be possible for me to de- 

 scribe the acute situation confronting many of the other industries that 

 use special classes of forest products, due to the uncertainty in regard 

 to supplies in the future. I refer to industries that use oak, hickory, 

 cherry, yellow poplar, walnut, and ash. 



Douglas fir from the Pacific coast is already coming into the New 

 England market. This means that because of the diminishing supplies 

 in the East the prices have risen to a point where it is possible to ship 

 lumber 3,000 miles in competition with that produced locally. With 

 the further reduction of home spruce supplies, the approaching exhaus- 

 tion of white pine in the Lake States and the withdrawal within a few 

 years of southern pine as a competitive factor, the East will be turning 

 more and more to the Pacific coast. It is estimated that the Lake 

 States, which a few years ago were the greatest producers of timber, 

 are today paying a freight bill of about six million dollars a year to 

 bring in lumber and other products from Outside sources. 



About 30 years ago New England was not only self-supporting in 

 her timber resources, but exported large cjuantities to other parts of the 

 country and abroad. Within the last 15 years New England has be- 

 come an importing region and looks more and more for timber supplies 

 to the South, to the Lake States, and even to the Pacific coast. It is 

 estimated that fully 30 per cent of all the lumber used in New England 

 now comes from outside the region. This is in addition to the impor- 

 tations of large quantities of pulpwood. New England is one of the 

 important centers for wood-using industries. Heretofore many of 

 these industries have drawn upon local supplies. It is estimated that 

 the annual growth in New England of forest materials that will be 

 suitable for lumber or other higher uses is less than half of what is 

 being cut. These are facts of vital interest to a region that has about 

 300 million dollars invested in the wood and forest industries and em- 

 ploys in this connection over 90,000 wage-earners. 



It happens that the area of forest land in New England is about 25 

 million acres. This is almost the same as the forest area of France, 

 and in many respects the character of the forest has marked points of 

 similarity. France is producing by growth each year 50 per cent more 

 than New England. She has for years been improving her forests and 

 api)roaching a point where she can furnish most of her domestic needs. 



