Forest Resources and the Nation's Economy 



Industrial and residential construc- 

 tion, the largest single market for lum- 

 ber, accounts for about two-thirds of 

 all lumber used annually in the United 

 States. Nearly every one of the 40 mil- 

 lion dwellings in the United States 

 contains a substantial amount of wood. 

 From one-fourth to one-third of the 

 cost of the average house is for wood 

 in some form. The exterior walls of 

 three-fourths of all dwellings are made 

 of wood; most have a wood frame- 

 work; and wood is also used exten- 

 sively for interior finish and trim. 



In 1947, total construction activity 

 in the United States was 21 billion 

 dollars, a substantial part of which 

 represented the cost of timber prod- 

 ucts, including the cost of labor and 

 overhead to incorporate them into the 

 structure. 



The fabricated wood products, too 

 numerous to list, add to the Nation's 

 real income and standard of living. 

 The wood-furniture industry alone 

 creates products valued annually at 

 about 1.3 billion dollars. Among the 

 wood-fabricating industries, it is one 

 of the largest consumers of wood. It is 

 exceeded only by the box and millwork 

 industries. The total estimated use of 

 wood in all fabricated products in 1940 

 was 12 billion board feet. 



Annually since the Second World 

 War the paper and paperboard indus- 

 try has manufactured products valued 

 at about 2.5 billion dollars. Paper of 

 all sorts (news, book, wrapping, writ- 

 ing, tissue, and building) and paper- 

 board for boxes and containers are the 

 principal products of this industry. 

 Two of the raw materials required in 

 their manufacture are products of the 

 forest, that is, wood pulp (made from 

 pulpwood) and rosin, which together 

 account for more than 80 percent of 

 the value of all raw materials used in 

 paper making. Converted paper prod- 

 ucts have an estimated annual value 

 of another 2.5 billion dollars. 



The rayon yarn and fiber industry, 

 which now puts more than 750 mil- 

 lion dollars' worth of products on the 

 market annually, also depends largely 



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upon wood as a raw material. About 80 

 percent of the fibrous material used in 

 rayon is wood pulp. Further processing 

 of rayon yarns into textiles and apparel 

 broadens the Nation's industrial struc- 

 ture by providing employment and 

 additional manufactured products of 

 great value and utility. 



Trade in forest products is an- 

 other important activity. The rough- 

 timber products, such as fuel wood, 

 fence posts, mine timbers, and poles, 

 often pass directly from producer to 

 consumer without entering wholesale 

 or retail distribution channels. The 

 more important primary products, such 

 as lumber, veneer, cooperage, and 

 pulp and paper, however, are normally 

 distributed by wholesalers, retailers, 

 and other middlemen. 



Before the Second World War, 50 

 to 55 percent of the lumber produced 

 reached consumers through some 25,- 

 000 retail yards, whose volume of sales 

 equaled 1.5 billion dollars in 1939, the 

 latest year for which we have data. 

 The sale of lumber, millwork, plywood,, 

 lath, shingles, and other building mate- 

 rials of wood probably represented no 

 more than half that amount. Total 

 commodity sales of timber products 

 from the 1,800 wholesale lumber and 

 millwork establishments in that year 

 were about 475 million dollars. Of the 

 600-million-dollar business that the 

 wholesale paper and paper-products 

 trade did in 1939, about 80 percent 

 represented sales of paper and paper 

 products. Since 1945, the annual dol- 

 lar-volume sale of the wholesale trade 

 in both lumber and millwork and 

 paper and paper products is estimated 

 to have trebled the prewar level, pri- 

 marily because of increases in prices. 



World distribution of timber re- 

 sources and rates of depletion are domi- 

 nant factors in determining the pattern 

 of foreign trade in timber products. 

 The United States is traditionally a 

 net exporter of lumber, primarily be- 

 cause of the high domestic rate of 

 softwood production and the general 

 world scarcity of softwoods. Naval 

 stores produced in the United States 



