THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



489 



.Michigan is tlie greatest lumber-producing state in the Union. The value of its lumber product, with that of 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota, exceeds one-third of the total value of all the lumber manufactured in the United States. 

 This enormous development of the lumber business in the lake region is due to the excellence of its forests, the 

 natural advantages of the country for .manufacturing lumber, and the easy communication between these forests and 

 the treeless agricultural region west of the Mississippi river. 



The extinction of the forests of the lake region may be expected to seriously affect the growth of population 

 in the central portion of the continent. The. country between the Mississippi river and the Kocky mountains, now 

 largrly supplied with lumber from Michigan. Wisconsin, and Minnesota, must for building material soon depend 

 upon the more remote pine forests of the (riilf region or those of the Pacific coast. A great development in the 

 now comparatively unimportant lumber-manufacturing interests in these regions may therefore be expected. Xew 

 centers of distribution must soon supplant Chicago as a lumber market, and new transportation routes take the 

 place of those .built to move, the pine grown upon the shores of the great lakes. It is not probable, however, 

 that any one point will ever attain the importance now possessed by Chicago as a center for lumber distribution. 

 With the growth of the rarroad system and the absence of good water communication from the great forests 

 remaining in the country toward the center of the continent, lumber will be more generally shipped direct by rail 

 from the mills to the consumer than in the past. In this way the pine of .Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas will 

 reach Kansas, Nebraska, and the whole country now tributary to Chicago. Western Texas and northern Mexico 

 will be supplied by rail with the pine of eastern Texas, and the prairies of .Minnesota and Dakota must draw their 

 lumber by rail, not as at present from the pine forests covering the shores of lake Superior, but from the flr and 

 redwood forests of the Pacific coast. 



FUEL. 



The following table represents the consumption of forest products as fuel during the census year. The 

 estimates of the amount and value of the wood used for domestic fuel are based upon answers to letters of inquiry 

 addressed to persons living in every town in the United States. The average amount and value of the wood used 

 by a family of five persons, taken as a unit, is multiplied by the number of families in each state using wood for 

 fuel, and the result thus obtained is taken as the total state consumption : 



WOOD USED AS FUEL FOE VARIOUS PURPOSES. 



ESTIMATED CONSUMPTION OF WOOD FOR DOMESTIC PURPOSES. 

 Number of persons using wood for domestic fuel, 32,375,074. 



o Inclndiuu a sra.'ill amount imported from Canada. 

 CONSUMPTION OF CHARCOAL. 



