98 



Michigan City was the principal point of distribution through a large 

 portion of Indiana, and it was no uncommon practice for large retail deal- 

 ers in Indianapolis and other cities to purchase an entire barge-load of 

 lumber and bring it to their mills where it was worked into flooring, siding, 

 finish, etc., and sold to the dealers in the smaller towns. At that time the 

 demand was confined to three or four different kinds of wood, the base of 

 supply was near, and the investment of the average retailer consequently 

 was small. 



I recall when hemlock dimension lumber was shipped into this market 

 from Michigan City and sold at retail for $11.00 per thousand. The freight, 

 as I recall it, was about $1.25 per thousand feet. However, as the timber 

 in these states that were located near the water was cut out, and it was 

 necessary to build railroads far into the woods, prices began to rise and 

 southern yellow pine, which at that time could be found in great quantities 

 along almost every mile of railway through the timber states of the south, 

 found a market in the north. 



The freight rates were low, being an average of about $4.50 per thousand 

 feet. Stumpage accessible to railroads could be bought for $1.00 to $2.00 

 per acre, and as a result, prices of yellow pine lumber were low. Recently 

 when looking over the invoice of the first car of lumber bought by my com- 

 pany, when we began business in 1892, which by the way was yellow pine, 

 I find we paid, delivered, $16.75 per thousand for four inch Star flooring, 

 that grade being practically clear, $14.00 for ten inch, number two boards 

 and $14.75 for six inch number one common drop siding. These prices do 

 not represent the present cost of freight from the northwest. 



Now when the easily accessible timber in the south has been cut" and 

 logging operations have become very expensive, prices have sharply ad- 

 vanced. Freight rates have gone higher as the average haul has become 

 longer, the rate from the south being now practically double that of twenty- 

 five years ago. 



Statistics of the supply and cut of timber show that the source of 

 supply is again shifting and the northwest is now the only great reser- 

 voir of supply left, but on account of the great distance and expensive 

 methods of logging made necessary by the broken country and great size 

 of the timber, we can not expect the low prices that have prevailed in the 

 past at the opening of a new timber supply. 



At the present rate of cutting, figures given being as of 1916, the supply 

 of all available merchantable timber in the United States, making no 

 allowance for new growth and based on present utilization and consump- 

 tion, is shown as follows : 



Pacific Northwest 166 years 



Southern States 30 years 



Lake States 21 years 



All Others 70 years 



or an equivalent of over seventy years. This discloses the rapid approach 

 of the end of the supply in the lake and southern states, and means that 

 soon the entire central west and east must depend upon obtaining all their 

 supply of timber from the northwest, at a freight cost, based on present 



