434 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



structural timber.-, u>cd in the Eastern and Central 

 States during the last fifteen years was grown in the 

 j.itie forests of the south. The virgin pine forests of 

 the South Atlantic and Gulf States have been reduced 

 from about 650 billion board feet to about 139 billion 

 feet. The production of yellow pine lumber is now 

 falling off and within ten years will probably not exceed 

 the requirements of the Southern States themselves. 

 The United States at one time contained the most 

 extensive temperate zone hardwood forests in the world. 

 One region after another has been cut out. The produc- 

 tion of hardwood products on their past scale can not 

 be long continued. The scarcity of high grade oak, 

 poplar, ash, hickory, walnut, and other standard woods 

 is now placing many American industries in a critical 

 condition. 



The depletion of forest resources is not confined to 

 saw timber. Since 1909, the country has ceased being 

 self-supporting in newsprint paper and now imports 

 two-thirds of the pulp, pulpwood, or newsprint which 

 we require. This condition is due in part to timber 

 depletion, in part to failure of the paper industry to ex- 

 pand in our western forest regions as the lumber indus- 

 try has expanded. In 1919 the production of turpentine 

 and rosin had fallen off 50 per cent. Within ten years 

 the United States will lose its commanding position in 

 the world's market for these products and may, in time, 

 be unable to supply its domestic requirements. 



The termination of the war found the lumber industry 

 with depleted stocks. Production during the war had 

 been much less than normal on account of shortage of 

 labor and equipment and embargoes on transportation. 

 A large part of the lumber produced had been taken by 

 the government for war purposes. During the same 

 time, the normal construction of dwellings and industrial 

 structures and the use of lumber in many manufacturing 

 industries had been greatly curtailed. Following the 

 war, these pent-up demands were released. They caught 

 the lumber industry not only with its stocks short arid 

 broken from war conditions but unable, on account of 

 labor difficulties, lack of freight cars and bad weather 

 in important producing regions, to respond rapidly with 

 increased production. Aside from the general causes 

 affecting prices of most commodities, the expansion of 

 credit accompanied by currency inflation and the wave 

 of speculation and extravagance an "auction" lumber 

 market would no doubt have resulted from the frenzied 

 competition of buyers to obtain the limited stocks avail- 

 able, wholly inadequate to satisfy current demands. 



Under the combined influence of the general conditions 

 making for high prices and this situation in the lumber 

 industry itself, prices rose to unprecedented limits. In 

 March, 1920, average mill prices in the South and West 

 had increased 300 per cent and more over the prices 

 received in 1914, and average retail prices in the Middle 

 West showed increases ranging from 150 to 200 per 

 cent. In the case of high quality hardwoods and other 

 specialized products, the average advance in eastern 

 wholesale markets was from $200 to $250 per thousand 



feet, and the demand at this advance was still unsatisfied. 



The timber market has been more unstable than ever 

 before in our history. Many industries have been unable 

 to secure their supplies of timber at any price. The 

 output of certain entire industries has been reduced as 

 much as 50 per cent. A large speculative element has 

 been introduced into the sale of lumber. Middlemen 

 and manufacturers of wooden commodities have been 

 able to pass on to the consumer and even augment any 

 price they might pay. Necessities have fared worse 

 than luxuries. The ramifications of lumber shortages 

 and high prices are limitless and have affected seriously 

 practically our entire population. 



Obviously these lumber prices bear no relation to the 

 cost of production and distribution. While the costs of 

 production in the lumber industry have at least doubled 

 as compared with 1916, lumber prices have much more 

 than doubled and have become wholly disproportionate 

 to operating costs. Excessive profits have been made 

 by the industry. The division of these profits between 

 manufacture and distribution has varied in accordance 

 with circumstance and the ability of the various elements 

 in the industry to dominate the situation. That prices 

 have been too high is recognized by the best thought in 

 the industry; and some manufacturers have sought to 

 stabilize the market. 



The depletion of timber in the United States has not 

 been the only cause of these excessive prices on forest 

 products, but has been an important contributing 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 ex- 

 haustion of timber in nearby forest regions has compelled 

 many large lumber consuming centers to import 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 

 between 1865 and 1917 when most of the supply came 

 from the Lake States and the South, and are now enter- 

 ing 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, re- 

 tailed at $15 to $20 per thousand feet prior to 1900. As 

 lumber from the Lake States became 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 trans- 

 portation is but one factor in these new price levels, but 

 it is an important one. The freight bill on the average 

 thousand feet of lumber used in the United States is 

 steadily increasing as the sawmills get farther and farther 

 away from the bulk of the lumber users. 



Much information is available to show the disadvan- 

 tage of the lumber consumer whose nearby forests have 

 been exhausted. Retail prices in the Ohio Valley, for ex- 



