12 BULLETIN 638, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



companies poor markets may be more than sufficient to offset even a 

 considerable decrease in supply. This was the case in western Wash- 

 ington in 1915, when overproduction w r as very marked in spite of a 

 lumber production approximately 13 per cent less than that of 1913. 

 In addition to the losses to manufacturers brought about by such a 

 condition, this reduced cut probably meant a decrease of from 

 $7,000,000 to $8,000,000 in \vages paid to laborers, to say nothing of 

 correspondingly decreased expenditures for supplies and equipment. 

 Moreover, logging at such times is accompanied by a waste of much 

 material in the woods, since depressed market conditions make it 

 unprofitable to harvest the lower grades and inferior species. From 

 the standpoint of the public, overproduction caused by timber specu- 

 lation means the premature and wasteful exploitation of an essential 

 resource, decreased opportunities for the employment of labor and 

 investment of capital, and hard times generally for individuals and 

 industries dependent on lumbering. 



IN CUT-OVER LANDS. 



Tying up agricultural lands. Perhaps even more important from 

 a social standpoint than the holding of mature timber is speculation 

 in cut-over lands. This does not mean that such speculation has 

 been universal. On the contrary, many owners, actuated by real 

 public spirit, have attempted to secure the settlement of their cut- 

 oA T er lands under the right conditions or to hold them for future 

 forest production. In spite of such instances, however, speculation 

 in cut-over lands has been much too frequent, and has acted in two 

 opposite directions : to prevent the development of good agricultural 

 lands, and to encourage the settlement of nonagricultural lands. 

 Whether such lands are put on or kept on the market depends en- 

 tirely on the speculator, who naturally follows whichever course ap- 

 parently will be most profitable for him, irrespective of its effect on 

 the individual settler or on the community. 



In the case of lands which are really suitable for agriculture, 

 the tendency is for the speculator to hold them out of use in order 

 to secure the benefit of the rise in land values that is sure to follow 

 increase of population. This is done more often by offering the lands 

 for sale at a price in excess of their true present value than by re- 

 fusal to sell at any price. Examples of this practice, which generally 

 is looked upon as " good business," are so common as scarcely to ex- 

 cite comment. A single illustration of how it works out in actual 

 practice will therefore suffice. 



In western Washington some 700,000 acres were eliminated from 

 the Olympic National Forest in 1900 and in 1901 for the ostensible 

 reason that the area was good agricultural land and that its reten- 



