REVIEWS 



Timber Depletion, Lumber Prices, Lumber Exports, and Concen- 

 tration of Timber Ownership. Report of the Forest Service in Re- 

 sponse to Senate Resolution 311. 1930. , 



During the last eighteen months there has been a very lively public 

 agitation throughout the country regarding the forest question. This 

 is due in part to the movement for a National Forest Policy, promoted 

 by the foresters of the country. Chiefly it is due to the skyrocketing 

 of the prices of lumber, the difficulty and frequent impossibility of 

 obtaining materials promptly and in the quantities needed, and the 

 consequent hardship to all wOQd consumers. The widespread public 

 uneasiness and agitation over the forest and lumber question were 

 reflected in a resolution of the United States Senate, introduced by 

 Senator Capper of Kansas, calling upon the Secretary of Agriculture 

 for the facts regarding the situation. The resolution, in its preamble, 

 refers to the rapid depletion of the forest resources of the country, and 

 requests such information as is available regarding the depletion of 

 the timber, pulpwood, and other forest resources, and the relation of 

 this depletion to the current high prices, to the problem of lumber 

 export, and to the concentration of ownership of timber lands and of 

 lumber manufacture. The report of the Forest Service, in response 

 to this resolution, was submitted June 1, 1920, carrying the long, 

 though descriptive, title at the head of this review. The report has 

 already attracted a great deal of attention, being ordinarily referred 

 to, for short, as the ''Capper Report." 



The Capper Report is in many ways the most important contribution 

 to the economics of forestry that has been published since the reports 

 of the National Conservation Commission in 1908. During the last 

 decade many facts about the condition of our forests and the lumber 

 industry have been published from various sources. A good deal of 

 this material was based on the studies of the National Conservation 

 Commission in 1908 ; some of it was applicable only to special regions 

 and special problems ; in many cases the information used by different 

 authorities was contradictory. The Forest Service has now brought 

 together in concise form the best information available and has inter- 

 preted it in light of the post-war economic and industrial conditions. 

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