A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 193 



improvements in logging and milling practices resulting in lower costs, 

 or enhancement in lumber prices would automatically make more of 

 the western timber available. Undoubtedly there will continue to be 

 changes of this character. Howver, some forest engineers believe that 

 large volumes can never be economically utilized. 



THE MIGRATION OF FOREST INDUSTRIES 



While the migratory habits of our forest industries can be explained 

 partly by expanding markets, they are largely the result of the exhaus- 

 tion of local timber supplies a situation which sustained yield man- 

 agement of the regional forest resources would have largely obviated. 

 The various migrations of the forest industries throw considerable 

 light on present available forest supplies. The following salient facts 

 are given for a few representative industries. 



LUMBER INDUSTRY 



In softwood lumber manufacture, the depletion of available virgin 

 timber supplies has marked an industrial cycle in each forest region. 

 Local industries developed, dominated the consuming markets of the 

 country, and declined at last so far as to be unable to meet even the 

 regional requirements. This cycle has been characterized by a tran- 

 sition from light culling to clean cutting of good timber and poor 

 alike, and by a shift from the more to the less desirable species. The 

 peak of softwood lumber production moved successively from New 

 England to New York, to Pennsylvania, and thence to the Lake 

 States. It culminated in the Lake region in the early nineties with 

 a lumber cut of about 9 billion board feet, or about one half of the 

 softwood cut of the entire country. 



In their turn, the South and the Pacific coast regions have held the 

 commanding position. Southern softwood lumber passed a peak of 

 16 billion board feet in 1909. For over a decade Pacific coast lumber 

 has dominated Lake States markets and has now entered in appre- 

 ciable quantities the markets of the South. In 1929, Washington, 

 Oregon, California, and Idaho together produced over 15 billion feet 

 of lumber, or about half of the total softwood lumber cut of the 

 country in that year. 



Hardwood lumber production centers have shifted in much the 

 same way. The industry began early in New England and along 

 the Atlantic coast, spread slowly westward through New York and 

 Pennsylvania as the better and more accessible local supplies were 

 cut out, and became important in Ohio and the other Central States 

 after water and rail transportation was developed. From there it 

 spread north into the Lake States and south into Kentucky and 

 Tennessee and the southern Appalachian Mountains. After succes- 

 sively depleting the available virgin stands of these various regions, 

 the industry moved to the lower Mississippi Valley which embraced 

 the largest remaining stand. Now the end of abundant virgin sup- 

 plies in the lower Mississippi Valley is pretty definitely in sight. 

 Hardwoods occur in the West only to a negligible extent. 



FURNITURE INDUSTRY 



The furniture industry is one of a group of highly specialized 

 industries that are confronted by a growing scarcity of suitable raw 



