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A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



TABLE 14. Lumber production in the United States by regions, 1869-1929 

 [Million feet board measure] 



i Statistics reported by the Bureau of the Census and the Forest Service. 



On the whole, the Lake, Middle Atlantic, and Central regions, with 

 lesser contributions from New England which did not reach its peak 

 in lumber cut until 10 years later, continued to supply the major part 

 of the Nation's lumber cut until about 1899, at which time their com- 

 bined cut not only commenced to fall off in itself but even more 

 rapidly in relation to the rapidly expanding cut in the South. By 

 1929 all three were below the 2% billion mark. The South reached 

 its peak of 20 billion board feet about 1909 at which time it was sup- 

 plying nearly half the cut for the entire country. Since that time 

 it has rather slowly fallen off but in 1929 it was still slightly in excess 

 of the Pacific Coast cut, which assumed significant proportions soon 

 after 1909 and has mounted rapidly since then. Considering the 

 relatively large supply of virgin timber in the Pacific Coast as com- 

 pared with that of the South and the depleted condition of the grow- 

 ing stock as a whole in the South, it seems not only very probable, 

 but also desirable, viewed from the aspect of rehabilitating and organ- 

 izing on a sustained yield basis the latter's forest capital, that the cut 

 of lumber in the Pacific Coast region should assume and hold the 

 regionally predominant position for a limited period of time. Our 

 domestic supply of hardwoods, however, must continue to come from 

 the forests of the East and South, for western forests are practically 

 all softwoods. 



FUEL WOOD 



The average yearly production of forest fuel wood in the period 

 1925-29 is shown to be 61 million cords (table 13), of which about 

 42 million cords are charged as drain on the commercial forests. The 

 drain on cordwood stands is estimated to be 28 million cords, and 

 that on saw-timber stands the equivalent of 14 million cords. 



