28 



HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 



It produced 20% of the total lumber supply, and Albany was the 

 great lumber mart. In 1860 the center of the lumber industry shifted 

 to Pennsylvania, and by 1892 the peak production of white pine was 

 reached in the magnificent stands of this species in Michigan. For 

 nearly 300 years, therefore, white pine continued to be the leading 

 lumber tree of the nation. It was the most useful species found in 

 our American forests. Then quickly the lumber industry shifted to 

 the yellow pine forests of the South which were used for the upbuild- 

 ing of the great central west during the later periods of westward 



FIG. 19. Map showing progress of lumber industry with dates of peak production 

 and leading species in principal regions. 



expansion and development. The peak of the southern pine produc- 

 tion as well as the all-time peak of the American lumber industry was 

 reached in 1909, when 46 billion board feet of lumber from all species 

 was produced. By 1920 the bulk of the virgin timber was removed 

 from the South, and some of the same families who for generations 

 were engaged in the lumber industry, having followed it westward to 

 Michigan and then to the South, now turned to the Pacific Coast. 

 The peak of lumber production in the Northwest came in 1926 when 

 some 8 billion board feet of Douglas fir was produced. Owing to the 

 inroads of substitutes and economic conditions, national lumber pro- 

 duction rapidly decreased until in 1932 it sank to 10% billion board 



