300 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



American people to such an extent that I am fully convinced that 

 we shall work out improved methods of production and distribution 

 of lumber and other products, so that the lumberman, for example, 

 can convert more trees into lumber and sell it to the farmer, who in 

 turn will be able to pay for it through the sale of more of his farm 

 products. The forester is already equipped to help in the solution 

 of this problem and is- better equipped every day. 



To revert again to the question of importation of supplies and at 

 the same time to domestic transport to a distance, it is an easily 

 demonstrated fact tha.t transport of wood to a distance is more ex- 

 pensive than to raise it locally, where the conditions are adapted to 

 economic forest production. This was indeed the main reason for 

 the rise in lumber prices in certain sections. In my own native 

 country, western New York, lumber jumped in a short time, about 

 1900 to 1905, $10 to $20 per M feet. The occasion for this rise was 

 the near exhaustion of local supplies, which necessitated import from 

 the Lake States and the South, and hence the imposition of trans- 

 portation cost and middlemen's costs and profits. The report of the 

 Forest Commissioner of Maine for 1913 shows that most of the 

 timber used in its industries was grown locally and the cost to the 

 users moderate.^ The report of the State Forester of Massachusetts 

 for 1913 states that forest production is profitable at less than the 

 transportation costs of Pacific Coast timber, which he states is $20 

 or more per M. feet.^ This will probably be cut in half by regular 

 service through the Panama canal to coast points, but for inland points 

 damage in sea transit, yardage costs at coast terminals, middlemen's 

 costs and profits will prevent much reduction of this figure, which is 

 higher than the average value of spruce stumpage raised at good 

 profits in Germany.^ The fact is that in most localities in New 

 England far the cheapest way to supply timber to local industries is 

 to raise it locally and sell the logs or rough manufactured product 

 direct to the local user. This cuts out a vast accumulation of freight 

 charges, insurance, middlemen's charges, etc., largely representing 

 unnecessary human labor. 



Cary dwells at considerable length on the social value of having 



^ Report of Forest Commissioner of Maine, 1912, p. 151. Wood-using industries 

 reported by J. C. Ellis. 



6F. W. Rane, State Forester. Tenth Annual Report, 1913, pp. 8 and 9. 

 "> Roth, F. Forest Valuation, Ann Arbor, 1915, p. 92. 



