96 FORESTRY ALMANAC 



which and from which our free institutions have grown. Therefore, 

 the industry of cutting and distributing lumber and forest products 

 ranks as one of the most important in the country. 



More than one million workers are employed in the lumber and 

 wood using industries. Perhaps five times as many people are 

 directly dependent upon these and many more are indirectly affected 

 by them; and perhaps 10,000,000 are supported by the forests or its 

 products. More than twelve billion dollars are invested in them, and 

 the transportation lines of the United States carry annually some 

 3,500,000 carloads of timber and wood products at a total revenue to 

 the roads of over $300,000,000 more than from any other single 

 commodity. The United States cuts about one-half of the total annual 

 lumber cut of the world and uses nearly 95 per cent, of it at home. 

 The drain on the forests for all purposes is perhaps three times the 

 annual growth of merchantable timber. At this rate the end of the 

 original stand of timber is in sight. But a general practice of refores- 

 tation will give an annual yield of more than present consumption. 



The importance of the lumber industry in our economic and social 

 structure, therefore, is apparent. Any discussion of it, however, must 

 be geographically treated, and for the purposes of such a discussion 

 the country is divided roughly into five sections the Northeastern 

 States, the Southern States, the Central States, the Lakes States, and 

 the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast States. 



The Northeastern States 



The states from Maine to Maryland were the first home of the 

 lumber industry, and up to 1850 Maine was the leading timber-pro- 

 ducing State of the Nation. In that year New York took the lead, 

 though its actual production previously had been larger even while 

 Maine was leading. Pennsylvania took first place in 1860. Lands 

 were cleared for agriculture first and then industry, and the forests 

 were depleted until today the original forest area of about 108,000,000 

 acres in the Northeastern States has been reduced to one-half that 

 acreage of forest land. Twelve million of these acres are denuded and 

 unproductive ; four million acres are virgin forest, and the remainder 

 are divided about evenly between merchantable second growth and 

 young forests. These states are importers of 70 per cent, of their 

 wood supplies from Canada, the South, and the West. 



