350 Conservation of Lumber Supply 



small stock of timber remaining and the reduced amount of 

 the white pine in the eastern Canadian provinces, render it 

 of much less concern as to the remainder of our white pine 

 forests. On the Pacific coast the conditions are as much 

 subject to waste as those formerly prevailing in the old pine 

 regions; and in some respects more waste has been carried 

 on, especially in the great forest of California. 



We are now confronted with the conditions and prob- 

 lems transmitted to the remaining timber supply and which 

 have led to the consumption and the wasting of so much of 

 our forests that there is now left only an equal fraction of 

 the original timber supply. The temporary advanced prices 

 of lumber in the central and eastern part of the country, ex- 

 cepting as to the past year when prices have been lower, has 

 not, to any extent, reduced the per capita use of lumber, or 

 the general consumption which has prevailed in earlier years. 

 In fact, for the past several years, the per capita consump- 

 tion has been increasing because of the disappearance of the 

 hardwood which formerly supplemented largely the pine 

 lumber, but which is, to large extent, now exhausted. The 

 use of lumber within the past several years has reached the 

 actual amount of nearly 600 feet per capita, although counted 

 at only 500, as a large amount is cut that is not reported. 

 The use of substitutes like cement, iron, steel, bricks, stone 

 or paper for purposes where lumber was formerly used, has 

 not apparently reduced the demand materially. The great 

 activity has kept the demand and supply up to the former 

 amount. 



The inherited conditions pertaining to the remaining for- 

 ests bring with them the same difficulties for the continuance 

 of forest destruction that have caused waste in the past. 



Unless a more correct and rational understanding of the 

 lumber situation and problems is taken and understood, 

 rightly appreciated, and a practical policy — with public sen- 

 timent fairer to the lumbermen — more adaptable to the real 

 best interests of the public, is put into operation, a compara- 

 tively few years will see the end of cheap or moderate priced 

 lumber. 



This desire to over-stock the market with the timber 



