270 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Pulp wood, pulp, and paper imports are shown in terms of wage 

 earners employed in figure 10. The conversion is based on output 

 per man in the production of both pulp and paper in the United 

 States, as reported by the Bureau of the Census for 1929. Output 

 per man has increased since then, but not enough to affect measurably 

 the converting factor. Woods labor, which the census reports do not 

 include, has also been taken into account on a basis of 300 cords of 

 wood per man per year. This is all utilization labor, leaving the 

 additional factor of labor in growing the timber crop. 



On the above basis, our imports of foreign pulps, pulp woods, and 

 paper as of 1929 were equivalent to full-time employment for more 

 than 70,000 wage earners, which is nearly half as many as were actu- 



1909 1914 1919 1924 



FIGURE 10. Imports of wood, pulp, and paper converted to wage earners. 



1929 



ally employed in the entire domestic industry. This import business 

 has developed almost wholly since 1904, and most of it since 1919. 

 The figure will increase as our paper requirements increase, unless 

 with our domestic pulpwood resources better means are found to 

 meet the competition of imports. 



RAILROAD CROSSTIES 



The number of crossties purchased during 1929 (including bridge 

 and switch ties reduced to crosstie equivalents) amounted to 

 95,521,200 ties. This is the lowest for any year for which records are 

 available from 1906 to 1929. (See table 9.) 



There is considerable irregularity in the number purchased from 

 year to year, so that it is difficult to show from the record just what 

 the trend is, although it appears to be downward. The high figure 

 of 1907 has not been reached since, nor does the average for the years 

 1923 to 1929 reach the average for the years prior to 1923. A down- 



