99 



tors, this 40 per cent of hardwoods will cease to be a factor in Illinois 

 industry. 



When these facts are realized, the significance of the local supply 

 of hardwoods is emphasized. Illinois will never produce conifers, or 

 softwoods, on a large scale, for the reason that both soil and climate favor 

 hardwoods instead, and wherever such conditions exist, hardwoods are 

 capable of crowding out conifers in natural competition. In spite of the 

 great drafts upon local supplies for round products, which absorbed ill. 27 

 per cent of all hardwoods produced, the remainder, or 8.73 per cent, 

 which was sawed into lumber and used in the state, supplied 8.26 per 

 cent, or one twelfth of the present consumption of hardwood lumber, 

 from forests which, on the whole, have not only received no care or 

 protection, but which have been exposed to the ravages of uncontrolled 

 fires since the advent of the white settler a century ago. If capable of 

 conversion entirely into lumber, the Illinois production of hardwoods 

 would have supplied almost the entire quantity of hardwood lumber con- 

 sumed. As will be shown, the area of land in the state unsuited to agri- 

 culture is for the most part well adapted to the production of hardwood 

 timber of fair or even of superior quality. The state thus possesses 

 unique natural advantages within its own borders for producing the raw 

 materials most needed by its wood-working industries. It is obvious 

 that Illinois must depend on importations for its softwood lumber. But 

 it is equally certain that an adequate permanent future supply of hard- 

 wood lumber from outside sources may not be forthcoming. 



Softwoods, or lumber from cone-bearing trees, forming approxi- 

 mately 79 per cent of the total consumption, furnishes all but about 10 

 per cent of wood used for structural material or building, and in 1920 

 supplied two thirds of that consumed in the wood-using industries. How 

 large a factor these supplies of softwood timber are in the prosperity 

 and progress of the state can be realized by a rough appraisal of its value, 

 which at an estimated price of $50.00 per thousand board feet would 

 amount annually, for conifers, or softwoods, alone, to about $!i;j, ()()(), OOO. 



In the decades from 1850 down to 1900, by far the greater propor- 

 tion of this lumber came from the pineries of Michigan, Wisconsin, and 

 Minnesota. Only when these supplies began to wane could southern 

 pine compete in the Chicago market with the lake shipments of white 

 pine or even rail rates from Minnesota. Meanwhile the magnificent 

 forests of the Pacific coast, unexcelled in quality and stand per acre but 

 restricted in area as compared with southern yellow pine, struggled 



