404 United States. 



tinental supply of apparently inexhaustible amount was 

 brought into sight and within reach. 

 ^ Meanwhile the population began to grow, inmiigrants 

 began to pour in by the hundred thousand, and the 

 westward stream opened up new country and new timber 

 supplies, and a lumber industry of marvellous size be- 

 gan to develop. The small coimtry mill, run in the 

 manner of, and often in connection with, the grist mill, 

 doing a petty business, by sawing, as occasion demanded, 

 to order for home customers or export, gave way to the 

 large mill establishment as we know it now; and with 

 the development of railroad transportation and the set- 

 tlement of the western country, especially the forestless 

 prairies, the industry grew at an astonishing rate. 



It is worth while to briefly trace the history of this 

 industry, for the sake of which the need of conservative 

 forest policies is essential. 



That the petty method of doing business lasted until 

 the middle of the century is evidenced by the census of 

 1840, which reported 31,560 lumber mills, with a total 

 product valued as $12,943,507, or a little over $400 per 

 mill. By 1876, the product per mill had become $6,500 ; 

 by 1890, with only 21,000 mills, it was $19,000; in 1900, 

 nearly the same number of mills as were recorded in 

 1840 (33,035) furnished a product of 566 million dol- 

 lars, and in 1907, the banner year of production, the 

 cut of 28,850 mills was reported at over 40 billion feet, 

 and the gross product per mill had grown to $33,000, 

 or a value for all of $666, 641, 367. 



In the fifty years from 1850 to 1900, the value of all 

 forest products harvested increased from $59 million to 

 $567 million, and in 1907 the value had risen to $1,280 



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