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manufacturing industries of the country are in this section. And the 

 lumber consumed amounts to five and one-half billion feet a year, or about 

 a quarter of the aggregate used in this country for such enterprises. 



Of the approximately three and one-third billion feet of material that 

 goes into the wood-using manufactures of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio 

 alone, nearly one and one-half billion feet are in the form of hardwoods 

 native to and formerly abundant in these states. In fact, it was the 

 large supply of superior oak, hickory, maple, ash, yellow poplar, and 

 walnut that led to the establishment of many of the wood manufactures 

 in the early days. 



Twenty years ago Indiana led all the states in the quantity of hard- 

 wood lumber cut. At that time the state produced more lumber than 

 it used. Since then the forests have been rapidly cut away to supply 

 the industries and to make way for agriculture, so that the annual cut is 

 now only about a quarter of what it was then. 



About half of the wood material now used by the Indiana industries 

 comes from species native to the State, but about two-thirds of this 

 hardwood material is imported from other states. As long ago as 1911 

 only about twenty per cent of the walnut used in Indiana came from its 

 own forests, about a quarter of the yellow poplar and hickory, a third of 

 the basswood, forty per cent of the hard maple and forty-three per cent 

 of the oak. The showing today would be still more unfavorable. 



In Illinois the wood-using industries use about one and three-fourths 

 billion feet of lumber, of which about one-third is hardwood of species 

 native to the State. The industries, however, have to import over ninety 

 per cent, of this hardwood material. Ohio is somewhat better off than 

 Illinois, being able to produce about a quarter of the hardwoods used 

 in her wood manufacturing industries. 



Dependence on Other States. The situation in hardwoods, however, 

 constitutes only one phase of the problem. These states within the hard- 

 wood belt of the country and their production of softwoods is and always 

 was relatively small. For general construction lumber they must look 

 to other sources of supply. And here we have a demand not only from the 

 wood manufacturing industries, but also from all other consumers who 

 use lumber for various general purposes, including the great number of 

 shippers who need material for boxes, crates, and other containers. 



Among the consumers of lumber, too, are representatives of the greatest 

 wood consuming group in the country the farmers. Though the farms in 

 the central states have better and more adequate buildings than those 

 in many other regions, nevertheless the needs for building material, now 

 and in the future, of the farmers in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio must be 

 borne in mind in considering either a local or a national policy of forestry. 



These facts raise two very important questions : First, what can these 

 states do in the way of production of wood by growth ; and, second, what is 

 the situation in the rest of the country regarding forest supplies? 



Today the home product does not nearly meet the annual requirements, 

 and the cutting that is done far exceeds what is grown each year. It is 

 probable, from the best estimates that I have been able to secure, that 

 the annual growth of material of potential value in the three states is 



