916 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



are being exhausted in their turn. The Northeast today imports the 

 bulk of its kimber suppUes from distant parts of the country at enor- 

 mous cost for freight, in spite of the fact that it has vast quantities of 

 idle land suitable only for lumber production. 



The Lake States, 30 years ago the greatest lumber producers in the 

 history of the world, today are able to supply themselves with but a 

 small part of the timber they use. Their pine forests are almost ex- 

 hausted. Their commercial hardwoods will be gone within 25 years. 

 They import enormous quantities of timber from the South and the 

 far West, yet in the three Lake States there is as much idle land as 

 the whole area of Michigan. 



The southern pine region, for the last 20 years the world's greatest 

 producer of high-quality timber, is rapidly declining. Within 10 years 

 3.000 pine sawmills will be junked, and the region's annual cut of pine 

 will fall off by 50 per cent. The southern pine region has 75 million 

 acres of cut-over land. 



The Pacific Coast region has today the world's greatest stand of 

 high-grade timber. Within 10 years it will be supplying the bulk of the 

 Nation's lumber. It has great areas suitable only for forests. 



As the more accessible forests are devastated, the length and cost of 

 the freight haul between the remaining forests and the centers of con- 

 sumption constantly increase, and the logging of more and more inac- 

 cessible timber becomes steadily more expensive. 



The effects of timber shortage is shown not only by the soaring 

 prices, but also by the constant lowering of the quality of lumber on 

 the market. Grades and kinds which, even 20 years ago, were con- 

 sidered hardly worth manufacturing, today furnish large parts of. the 

 stocks in trade. As the better trees approach or reach exhaustion, 

 poorer kinds and lower grades must take their places. 



High prices and the growing scarcity of high-grade timber are re- 

 sponsible for the tremendous substitution of other materials for wood. 

 This substitution already amounts to a fourth of our total annual con- 

 sumption of wood, and it increases steadily. In most cases it means 

 higher cost to the consumer ; in many cases, less satisfactory products. 



The constant increase in cost, the constant lowering of quality, the 

 steady substitution of other materials for wood, all certify not only 

 that a tremendous deficit in timber supplies is on the way, but that an 

 important shortage is here already. 



