THE COST OF TRANSPORTATION AS A TAX ON THE 

 LUMBER CONSUMER OF THE LAKE STATES 



By K. J. Braden 



The growing scarcity of stumpage in the United States is empha- 

 sized by the steady increase in mill prices of lumber from 1900 to 1908. 

 The average mill price of thirty species in 1900, $11.13 per thousand 

 feet, had increased by 1908 to $15.37 per thousand feet, an advance of 

 38 per cent in eight years. Several of the species follow, with the 

 percentage of increase : White pine, 43.2 ; oak, 54.1 ; cedar, 65.3 ; 

 western white pine, 54.9; walnut, 16.0; yellow poplar, 80.3; spruce, 

 44.2. 



Taken as a whole, this advance in price is significant of one thing 

 especially, namely, that the increasing use of wood substitutes cannot 

 be expected to effectually halt the advance in wood prices, although it 

 cannot be doubted that the increase would be greater in the absence of 

 such substitutes. This principle is further supported by the fact that 

 in Germany, where the use of wood substitutes is developed to its 

 fullest extent, and where the per capita consumption of wood is only 

 a fraction of what it is in this country, the average unit value of all 

 wood sold from the state forests increased 47 per cent between 1898 

 and 1908. 



Analyzing the list of increases given above, we find evidence of 

 the competition between species. Yellow poplar and cedar, both of 

 which have special uses for which it is difficult to substitute another 

 species, have suffered the greatest advance in price. Walnut, which 

 had already reached a very high price in 1900, is evidently subject to 

 the competition of cheaper woods. The comparatively small advance 

 in white pine must be ascribed to its sale in competition with western 

 and southern pines, rather than to any large amount available. 



This presence of western and southern species in the market 

 throughout the Lake States is conclusive evidence of a scarcity of 

 white pine stumpage. Twenty-five years ago the white pine controlled 

 the market in the north central tier of states, and the price was 

 dependent on its cost of production and distribution. As the supply 

 decreased the value of the stumpage went up, until the southern pines 

 were able to replace it to a large extent. As yellow pine becomes less 



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