ALASKA WOODS, THEIR PRESENT AND PROSPECT- 

 IVE USES. 



By B. E. Hoffman. 



In addition to the valuable mineral and fishing resources of 

 Alaska, the vast forest areas are one of the most important 

 sources of the territory's wealth. Although these forests do not 

 contain sufficient quantities of saw-timber to ever reach com- 

 mercial importance outside of supplying the local market, they 

 do contain an abundance of raw material for use in developing 

 the other resources, besides an almost unlimited supply of paper 

 pulp wood. 



Local Consumption and Conditions of Timber. 



The fishing industry has been making a rapid growth during 

 recent years, and it is bound to be one of the permanent and 

 principal industries of this region. The canneries of Alaska in 

 1912 packed very nearly three million cases of salmon and used 

 in this connection approximately twenty-one million board feet 

 of saw-timber for cases, about eight million board feet of which 

 was supplied from National Forest timber, the remainder being 

 shipped from the states. Aside from a small quantity of piling 

 taken from the public domain, approximately two million linear 

 feet of piling was taken from the Tongass National Forest and 

 used in connection with the fishing business of southeastern 

 Alaska, during the year 1912, while a much less amount was 

 taken from the Chugach Forest and used for fish traps and 

 wharves in that region- 



During the more recent years there has been but little activity 

 in the mining business and only limited quantities of timber have 

 been used in that connection. The time is coming, however, 

 when this industry will be active throughout the territory and 

 comparatively large quantities of piling, construction lumber, 

 mine props and fuel will be needed in carrying on extensive 

 operations. 



Aside from the uses stated above, moderately large quantities 



