SIGNIFICANT TRENDS IN LUMBER PRODUCTION IN THE U. S. 



145 



are the equivalent of the cost laid down in Philadelphia 

 years ago of the Keystone State's justly famed cork 

 white pine. 



In the last 69 years the period 1850-1918, inclusive 

 the forests of the United States have yielded approxi- 

 mately 1,614 billion board feet of lumber alone; how 

 much more material, such as fuelwood, pulpwood, cooper- 

 age stock, and the like, can not be easily estimated. On 

 the basis that 219 cubic feet of timber is utilized in pro- 

 ducing a thousand feet of lumber, the total output of 

 1,614 billion board feet of lumber required the utiliza- 

 tion of 353,466 billion cubic feet of timber, a figure too 

 big to be readily comprehended. Assuming an average 

 stand at five thousand feet per acre throughout the 

 country, the 1,614 billion feet cut would represent the 

 equivalent of cutting over 322,800,000 acres or an area 

 <ts great as the combined surface area of the 18 States 

 bordering on the Atlantic and embraced by a line drawn 

 on the west to include New York, Pennsylvania, West 

 Virginia, and Alabama truly a vast area to be cut 

 over. 



The accompanying outline map of the United States 

 shows the total production for each of the eight general 

 lumber production regions for the period 1850-1918. A 

 striking feature of the statistics as applied to the several 

 regions is the close approach of the figures for three of 

 the older regions ; namely, the northeastern group, the 

 Lake States group, and the southern group of States, 

 with an aggregate cut of 313, 351 and 359 billion feet, 

 respectively. 



The lumber industry, the foresters, and even the 

 Government itself have been placed at a disadvantage 

 and sometimes embarrassed by the absence of reliable 

 data on our timber resources, since with one exception 

 there has never been any real effort made toward closely 



reckoning the stand of timber in the United States. Some 

 of the latter day statements are perhaps no more mis- 

 leading than that of more than a century ago, when it 

 was reported in England that the New World could not 

 supply spar timber for more than a few years longer. 

 The single effort to estimate the stand was the survey 

 made by the Bureau of Corporations in 1908- 1909, which 

 has been subjected to revision with passing years as facts 

 developed. It is true, of course, that what a compara- 

 tively few years ago was looked upon as inaccessible 

 timber or valueless species is now classed as accessible 

 or commercial, and allowance needs to be made for 

 similar changes in the years to come. There is a reason- 

 ably definite present-day knowledge of current timber 

 needs; it is the dearth of data relative to the timber 

 available that makes the future outlook unsatisfactory. 

 Statistics on the production of certain forest products 

 and on the consumption of others covering a series of 

 years permit of an intelligent understanding of the de- 

 mands upon our forests, and certain deductions may be 

 drawn from these statistics as to the volume of the 

 demands for the immediate future with their relation 

 to the circumscribed knowledge of the actual supplies. 

 But until a more intensive inventory is completed of 

 what the forests of the country hold in the way of 

 supplies, the lumbermen and the foresters and the public 

 cannot advance far ; because science demands exactness, 

 without which scientific principles are impossible of 

 formulation. 



The major demands made annually upon the forests, 

 based upon the latest available statistics, are shown in 

 Table 2. In the first column the volume of production 

 or consumption is expressed by the common unit of 

 measurement; in the second column the equivalent is 

 given in board measure; and in the third column the 



