CHAPTER IV 



THE FOREST INDUSTRIES 



NEXT to agriculture the forest industries stand 

 first in importance to the people of the 

 United States, while the various forms of mining, 

 including such occupations as brickmaking and 

 the like, rank but third. By forest industries I 

 mean, not merely lumbering, but all those industries 

 which obtain from forests either finished products 

 for consumption or raw material for manufacturing 

 branches. It would be useless to insert in this 

 book columns of statistics to illustrate these facts. 

 Those who care to study them can find them easily 

 in publications printed for that purpose. Nor can 

 we attempt to give a complete enumeration of the 

 various products which besides lumber are fur- 

 nished by the woods. A few of the most impor- 

 tant ones we may specify, and each reader will find 

 it easy to add to the list. 



First, there are a number of things of wide- 

 spread use which are very apt to escape the census 

 taker altogether because they are mostly made on 

 a small scale for local consumption, not rarely by 

 the consumer himself. Such is fencing material 

 of all kinds. The old-fashioned zigzag rail fence 



60 



