Forest Resources of the Pacific Northwest 



both pulp and paper itself, eoining from both Canada 

 and northern Europe. For many years, over half of 

 (lie |)aper requiiemcnts of the ITnited States have been 

 imported in one form or another. Our exports have 

 been negligible in proportion. 



Since the Nation's population has been steadily in- 

 creasing, the decline in lumber consumption must have 

 been tiie result of an even greater decrease in the per 

 capita consumption. Figure 10 shows the facts. It 

 will be seen that until 1904 both population and per 

 capita consumption were rising, which explains the 

 remarkable increase in lumber consumption of the 

 Nation. But beginning in 1904, the trend of per capita 

 consumption was sharply reversed, and its fall was even 

 more rapid than had been its rise. This fall was, it is 

 true, interrupted by a moderate gain during the post- 

 war period of business activity, but the depression 

 brought it down to levels never before reached during 

 the periods for which statistics are available. 



Meanwhile, the per capita pulpwood consumption 

 has been showing a moderate but fairly steady in- 

 crease, with the depression causing only a slight inter- 

 ruption. The gain in this material, however, is as yet 



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29 



inconsiderable as compared to the loss in lumber. 



The production of this Region has been strongly 

 influenced by the national consumption, but has not 

 followed the same trend. Its proportion of the national 

 consumption has greatly increased as a conserpience of 

 the partial exhaustion of the tind)er supplj' in some 

 of the eastern competing regions. This increase is 

 shown by figure 11. In 1900 the four Northwestern 

 States were producing only about 10 percent of the soft- 

 wood lumber used by the Nation, but during the follow- 

 ing three decades this proportion increased fairly 

 steadily to over half. During the depression, the eastern 

 producing regions were able to supply a greater propor- 

 tion of the reduced demand, and their competitive 

 advantage of low freight charges to the points of con- 

 smnption cut down the western share of the meager 

 business, and the 1930 peak has not since been equalled. 



In the same figure are shown the available pulpwood 

 statistics. During the last 10 years, the relative im- 

 portance of the Region in the production of pulpwood 

 has been rising very rapidly, and with only a minor 

 interruption during the depression. It is still, however, 

 low as compared with lumber. 



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Figure 10. 



Figure U. 



