The depletion of timber in the United States has 

 not been the only cause of these excessive prices on 

 In rest products, but has been an important contribut- 

 ing cause. It has led to the migration of both the 

 Softwood and hardwood lumber industries from region 

 to region and each is now cutting heavily into its 

 last reserves. The exhaustion of timber in near-by 

 forest regions has compelled many large lumber con- 

 suming centers to import their supplies from greater 

 and greater distances. The wholesale prices on upper 

 grades of softwood lumber in New York were from 

 $20 to $25 per thousand prior to 1865 when mills in 

 the same State supplied this market, from $35 to $45 

 !>'! v/cen 1865 and 1917 when most of the supply came 

 from the Lake States and the South, and are now 

 entering a general level of $130 a thousand feet with 

 a large part of the material coming from the Pacific 

 coast. In the Middle "West, the building grades of 

 white pine lumber cut in Michigan, Wisconsin, and 

 Minnesota, retailed at $15 to $20 per thousand feet 

 prior to 1900. As lumber from the Lake States be- 

 came exhausted and southern pine took over this 

 market, the retail prices rose to a level of $25 to $35 

 per thousand feet. The replacement of southern pine 

 by West Coast timbers now in progress is initiating 

 a new price level of about $80 to $85 per thousand 

 feet. The increased cost of transportation is but one 

 factor in these new price levels, but it is an important 

 one. The freight bill on the average thousand feet 

 ol' lumber used in the United States is steadily increas- 

 ing as the sawmills get farther and farther away 

 from the bulk of the lumber users. 



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