48 



of red fir, are very heavy, being exceeded only by the 

 redwood forests of California. Red fir, which is not 

 only the most numerous but the most valuable compo- 

 nent of the forest in commercial size and quality, ex- 

 tends from the shores, of Puget Sound up the mountains 

 to an altitude of perhaps 4.000 feet. Near the Pacific 

 coast the climate seems to be unfitted to it, and its 

 place is taken by hemlock, cedar, and Sitka spruce. 



It is estimated that 47,700 square miles, or 71 per 

 cent of the area of the state, are wooded. Much of 

 this, however, consists of burned and cut lands that are 

 now restocking. The total stand of timber, as obtained 

 from a fairly thorough canvass of the state made by the 

 United States Geological Survey, is estimated at 195,688 

 million feet. This is distributed among the principal 

 species as follows: 



Bed fir 90,593 



Spruce 8,221 



Cedar 22,646 



Hemlock 41,571 



Yellow pine 13,082 



Within the limits of the state the United States has 

 reserved areas amounting to 9,500 square miles as forest 

 reserves, besides a small tract about Mount Rainier of 

 324 square miles, which has been made a national park. 

 All these forest reserves are in mountainous country, 

 mainly in the Cascade range and the Olympics. 



Enormous amounts of valuable timber have been 

 destroyed by fire in the state, and large portions of the 

 amount formerly standing have been cut. The lumber 

 industry has been carried on in an extremely wasteful 

 manner, only from a fourth to a third of the wood mate- 

 rial having been utilized. When contrasted with the 

 practice in the states bordering on the Great Lakes, 

 where three-fourths of the tree is utilized, the amount 

 of waste becomes apparent. This is unavoidable under 

 present conditions of market and price, but will im- 

 prove as the demand for this lumber increases. 



The lumber industry of Washington is of far greater 

 importance than in either of the other two Pacific coast 

 states; indeed, it is greater than the two combined. It 

 first assumed importance between 1880 and 1890, and 

 increased with tremendous rapidity, so that in 1900 

 Washington was the fifth state of the Union in the lum- 

 ber industry, with a cut of 2,300 million feet, while the 

 product was valued at over $30,000,000. 



Lumbering is carried on in this state, mainly for ex- 

 port, by large mills with the most improved machinery 

 and appliances for doing work upon a wholesale scale. 

 In the lumber camps the work is done with donkey en- 

 gines and wire cables. The sawmills are, in the main, 

 large establishments with band and gang saws and all 

 appliances for the saving of labor in the handling of 

 lumber. The principal centers of the sawmill industry 

 are Tacoma, Port Blakeley, Seattle, Everett, Belling- 

 ham Bay, and Grays Harbor. 



The preeminence of Washington in the lumber Indus- 



try over the other states on the coast is due primarily 

 to the fact that much of the timber land has been easily 

 accessible to water transportation, since it borders upon 

 the shores of Puget Sound. The timber accessible to 

 this means of transportation is, however, at present 

 largely cut, and the transportation of logs from the 

 camps is now mainly carried on by means of logging 

 railways. 



There was reported as owned by lumbermen 21,700 

 million feet of lumber, half of which consisted of red 

 fir, and a third of yellow pine. This amount owned is 

 a trifle more than one-tenth of the total amount esti- 

 mated to be standing in the state. 



LUMBER INDUSTRY. 



TIMBER OWNED AND CUT BY SPECIES, AND AVERAGE 



STAND. 



FOREIGN TRADE IN LUMBER FOR 1900. 

 TABLE 23. IMPORTS. 



TABLE 24. EXPORTS. 



