97 



The economic necessity of the retail lumber yard was established beyond 

 question, for it was found that of the more than twenty-seven billion feet 

 sold in the entire country at retail, the average sale was considerably less 

 than $100.00. 



Quoting from Forest Report No. 116, "Considering the location of the 

 bulk of the saw mills with respect to the one hundred million lumber con- 

 sumers throughout the United States, together with the service demanded 

 by the average user, it comes apparent that some type of local retail yard 

 which assembles stocks of lumber from several producing regions in car- 

 load lots and provides time and place utility for the customer is essential 

 to the practicable distribution of the bulk of the lumber required in rela- 

 tively small and diversified amounts. 



"The retail dealer who makes a technical study of the relative merits 

 of different structural materials for different uses may occupy the position 

 of an unbiased adviser who is capable of rendering a valuable economic 

 service to this community." 



The retail lumber dealer, then, who comes so directly in touch with the 

 user is most deeply interested in the source of supply of timber, how long 

 it will last and what is being done to conserve and replenish it. The United 

 States has had during the past forty years, three great principal sources 

 Of supply, The Lake States, The Southern States and the Pacific Northwest. 



According to a recognized authority, the present supply of all merchant- 

 able timber is two thousand six hundred thirty-seven billion feet, as of 

 January, 1916, of which one thousand four hundred eighty-two billion feet, 

 or fifty-six and two-tenths per cent, is in the Pacific northwest, Oregon, 

 California, Idaho and Montana ; five hundred forty-five billion feet, or 

 twenty and ^even-tenths per cent, in the southern states ; ninety billion feet, 

 or thirty-four per cent, in the lake states, and the remaining five hundred 

 thirty billion, or nineteen and seven-tenths per cent, in the remaining forest 

 regions, including the central hardwood belt. 



The record of production covering the thirty-five years from 1880 to 

 1915, discloses that the lake states produced in 1880 thirty-five and one-tenth 

 per cent, of the lumber from the three great districts, but in 1915 only nine 

 and three-tenths per cent, was produced in that territory. The southern 

 states were producing fifteen and nine-tenths per cent, in 1880 and rose to 

 forty-eight and nine-tenths per cent, in 1915, while the Pacific northwest 

 furnished but three and eight-tenths per cent, in 1880, while in 1915 it was 

 cutting twenty-one and four-tenths per cent, of the total. 



My own experience in the lumber business goes back to the early part 

 of the nineties, just about the time southern yellow pine was getting into 

 the markets north of the Ohio river, and beginning to displace white pine 

 and hemlock in southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. 



Prior to that time the chief source of supply of the states represented in 

 this conference had been Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Saw mills 

 located along the Mississippi river and supplied with logs brought down 

 in rafts from the woods above, distributed their products through Illinois 

 and westward, while large distributing yards located at the lake cities 

 received barges of lumber from the mills in the north and shipped it out 

 over Indiana, Ohio and the east. 



