t42 JOURNAL Olf FORESTRY 



Recent changes have been chiefly in the direction of a new and more 

 effective organization of the lumber industry, especially through a more 

 highly organized control of saw mills and lumber marketing by groups 

 of operators. The industry was proverbially individualistic in char- 

 acter, with thousands of manufacturing units each operating with 

 little regard to the others or to general industrial conditions. In many 

 ways the industry was the most highly competitive in the country. 

 There is now "a distinct tendency, particularly in the western States, 

 toward concentration of a considerable group of mills. Such control 

 may be exercised through varying degrees of stock ownership, bond- 

 ing or other financial relations, or affiliations of one form or another. 

 These operating groups range from two or three sawmills to twelve 

 or more with a combined cut of from two to three hundred million 

 board feet yearly up to a billion feet." The report calls attention to 

 the fact that this tendency toward more large and powerful operating 

 groups is but partial and that the number of sawmills operating as 

 independent units is still very large and still manufactures the greater 

 part of the total lumber cut. Yet "as regards the principal remaining 

 timber resources of the United States in the West, the present ten- 

 dency is unquestionably toward a closer concentration of lumber 

 manufacture in large units than has existed hitherto." 



Another important factor in the reorganization of the lumber in- 

 dustry is the greater financial strength of its different elements. 

 Formerly many operators were struggling under heavy bonded in- 

 debtedness and weak financial backing. They were forced to produce 

 lumber continuously no matter what the condition of the market. 

 This was an important influence in maintaining the competitive char- 

 acter of the industry prior to the war. Since 1914 the financial 

 strength of the industry as a whole has been greatly improved. This 

 is due to the retirement of a large volume of bonds, the entrance of 

 new capital, and the elimination of many weakly financed operators. 

 This condition applies particularly to the West. 



There has also been more effective organization of the lumber 

 industry along the line of marketing. This is accomplished through 

 sales agencies which handle the output of a considerable number of 

 mills under central control, through the line yard system of retailing 

 lumber, and through the system of wholesale contracting for the total 

 output of certain mills. In some cases these centrally controlled dis- 

 tributing agencies handle very large amounts of material. One is 

 quoted by the re- Tt as marketing a billion feet of western timber 



