Forestry and the Lumber Business. 197 



rack, spruce, balsam, jack-pine and anything that will make a 

 saw-log. Yellow pine timber in the Southern States was con- 

 sidered of very little value and twenty-five years ago sold for 

 50 cents to $1.00 per thousand feet. To-day the production of 

 yellow pine constitutes nearly one-half the total lumber output 

 of the United States, including the hardwoods. Yellow pine 

 stumpage has risen from practically nothing to from $3.00 to 

 $5.00 per thousand feet. 



In 1890, the total production of lumber in the Lake States was 

 over nine billion feet, while in 1910 it was only about two billion. 

 More than five hundred mills which were at one time or another 

 sawing Northern pine in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, 

 are no longer operated, because there are no more logs to saw. 

 While the output has declined in the Lake States, it has rapidly 

 increased, because of the building of new mills, in the South and 

 West, so that the aggregate production of the country has been 

 growing. The census reports show the following lumber pro- 

 duction of the United States in recent years : 



1904. 34, 1 35 '1 39.000 feet. 



1906, 37,550,736,000 " 



1907, 40,256,154,000 " 



1908, 33,224,369,000 " 



1909, 44,585,000,000 " 



The decline in the production during 1908 was due to the finan- 

 cial depression following the money stringency of the last quarter 

 of 1907. The entire lumber industry has been marking time 

 since that panic. It is one of the very few businesses which has 

 not fully recovered from the effects of the decline in prices suf- 

 fered at that time. But it is significant that while the prices of 

 lumber declined, the prices of standing timber did not. Due in 

 part to the completion of new mills under way, the total produc- 

 tion of lumber in 1909 was the largest in the history of the nation. 

 There is every reason to believe that the lumber production of the 

 country has about reached its maximum. If generally favorable 

 business conditions are to continue for a few years, it is evident 

 that with the decline in the output, the lumber business will soon 

 enter upon the third stage of its development ; namely, the adop- 

 tion of conservative methods of handling timber. It is therefore 



