212 TIMBER VALUATION 



most of US to realize. We may have seen one kind of lumber 

 vanish from the market because it had been overcut but there 

 have usually been competitors to take its place. For example, 

 eastern white pine is very difiEicult to secure at the present time 

 in large clear boards but western silver pine and sugar pine are 

 essentially the same in quality and obtainable in large sizes. 

 Cannot this substitution continue indefinitely? Prior to the 

 Civil War the New England and Middle states were the principal 

 producers of lumber. Then the ascendancy passed to the I.ake 

 States without necessitating any great economic readjustment 

 because the species were the same. It was simply a question 

 of paying a greater freight charge. But by 1900 the southeast 

 was cutting more than the Lake States and by 1909 nearly four 

 times as much. This meant not only a longer haul for northern 

 wood users but entirely different species. Hence, serious read- 

 justments in machinery, methods, costs and selling prices were 

 made necessary. Now the southern pine region is being forced 

 into second place by diminishing supplies of standing timber and 

 the Pacific northwest is forging ahead. By 1925, 3000 sawmills 

 will have to shut down because there is no more southern yellow 

 pine for them to cut. Had the War come 10 years later the 

 lumber for cantonments, ships and airplanes would have had to 

 be shipped almost entirely from the Pacific northwest. What 

 this would have meant in delay and extra freight charges is 

 almost incalculable. Furthermore, the supplies in California, 

 Oregon, Washington and Alaska are not unlimited. The large 

 merchantable timber is confined to a rather narrow belt along 

 the coast where the influence of the moist winds from the 

 Pacific is felt. Behind — to the east of — the Cascades and 

 Sierras there is no good timber except on the scattered islands 

 of mountains which reach up far enough out of the arid plain 

 below to get some rainfall. The Rocky Mountain region has 

 been sarcastically characterized as "fit only for prairie dogs, 

 rattlesnakes and invalids." Certainly it has no timber to spare 

 for export. In other words, the states of New Mexico, Colorado, 

 Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Nevada need all 

 the timber they have for their own domestic development. This 



