and could be increased still further by intensive man- 

 agement. 



The life of the industry. At a diminishing rate of 

 depletion due to the cutting out of one holding after 

 another, it is estimated that the lumber cut of the 

 Lake States at the end of the next 5 and 10 years 

 will be about as follows : 



Estimated cut, 1925 2,400,000,000 



Present annual cut 3,500,000,000 



Estimated cut, 1930 1,800,000,000 



This represents only the production from commer- 

 cial tracts. As the commercial stands dwindle the pro- 

 duction of lumber and other products from farm wood 

 lots and from second growth in swamps and cut-over 

 areas may be expected to increase considerably in 

 proportion to the total cut, though not in actual 

 amount. Such lumber will be much inferior in qual- 

 ity to that from the commercial stands. 



PRESENT AND FUTURE CONSUMPTION OF LUMBER IN 

 THE LAKE STATES 



The average annual per capita consumption of lum- 

 ber in the Lake States is probably not far from the 

 average for the whole country 300 board feet. As- 

 suming a 12 per cent increase in population since 

 1910 (the increase for the previous decade was at the 

 rate of 14.06 per cent), the present population of the 

 Lake States is about 8,000,000. The total annual con- 

 sumption of lumber in the three States is thus about 

 2,426,000,000 board feet, or 70 per cent of the lumber 

 produced. 



Comparison with the estimates of future cut above 

 given indicates that by 1925 the local consumption 



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