6 FOREST PRODUCTS 



growth.) We are using our forests three times as fast as they grow. We 

 use about 200 cu. ft. per capita annually, which is more than that of any 

 other nation. Germany normally uses only 37 cu. ft., France 25, Great 

 Britain 14, and Italy 14. We use nearly twice as much wood per capita 

 to-day as we did fifty years ago. 



We are now using distinctively different species from those ten, 

 twenty, or fifty years ago. Hemlock now makes up the principal wood 

 cut in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New York. White pine, 

 the former leading wood cut, is now fourth on the list of the country's 

 lumber production. We are commonly using red gum, hemlock, tupelo, 

 beech, sycamore, etc., which formerly were scarcely cut at all for lumber. 



The table on page 5 shows the estimated annual consumption of forest 

 products in this country. It is based upon a large number of sources. 



ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF LUMBER 



For the past decade, the annual production of lumber in this country 

 has been about 40,000,000,000 bd. ft. It is likely that the peak of lumber 

 production in this country was reached in 1909 when 44,500,000,000 

 bd. ft. of lumber were reported cut. Up to that time lumber produc- 

 tion was on a steady increase. 



The tendency in the industry has been towards the centralization 

 of production in the largest sized mills. Fifty years ago, few mills had 

 a daily capacity of over 50,000 bd. ft. per day, whereas there are several 

 mills in this country which now have a capacity of around 1,000,000 

 bd. ft. per day. It is an interesting fact that only 925 sawmills, or 

 3.08 per cent of the total number of mills operating in this country 

 cut more than 23,000,000,000 bd. ft., or 58.56 per cent of the total pro- 

 duction. Each of these mills cut 10,000,000 bd. ft. or more per year. 

 About 70 per cent of the total number of all sawmills in this country, 

 amounting to over 30,000 mills, cut only about 10 per cent of the total 

 lumber product of the country. 



As our original virgin forests continue to be depleted, there will be a 

 distinct tendency in the direction of a larger number of small sawmills, 

 which will be operated to cut portions of the forest left by the larger 

 operations, timber found unsuitable at the time of cutting or on second or 

 even third growth which has sprung up after the last cutting or that pre- 

 viously left by the larger companies. In the year 1916, for example, 

 New York state reported 1121 mills, cutting from 50,000 to 500,000 

 bd. ft. annually in operation out of a total number of 1260 mills. Only 

 one state, North Carolina, reported a larger number of mills than New 



