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



1870 to 1890, is now thirteenth. Wisconsin, which headed the list 

 from 1900 to 1904, has now dropped to tenth place. 



And so the lumber industry has migrated from one region to an- 



^ cj O 



other as the center of production has shifted from the Northeast to 

 the Lake States and then to the South, and is now shifting to the 

 Pacific Northwest. This movement has been due in part to the nor- 

 mal clearing of land for agriculture and to the opening up and 

 development of hitherto comparatively unsettled and inaccessible 

 regions richly endowed with timber resources, but in part also to the 

 fact that on most of the cut-over areas no steps were taken to secure 

 a second crop to form the basis of another cut, and still less to pro- 

 vide for continuous forest production. The land to a large extent 

 has been rendered unproductive, towns and farms have been aban- 

 doned, timber supplies have been depleted, transportation facilities 

 have been crippled, and the community generally has been rendered 

 poorer and less independent. 



From a social standpoint one of the most significant phases of this 

 lack of permanence in the lumber industry has been the influence 

 that it has exerted on the movement of population and on the pros- 

 perity of cities and towns. Only in those regions where agricultural 

 lands strongly predominate have cities originally built up by the 

 lumber industry succeeded in maintaining an uninterrupted growth 

 and prosperity as the lumber was cut out. Many cities less favorably 

 situated with respect to agricultural lands have also succeeded in 

 maintaining their existence as the timber has gone by the introduc- 

 tion of other industries, but often only after a more or less prolonged 

 period of depression, and in any event with less prospect of attaining 

 the development that would have been possible if the forest land 

 tributary to them had been kept productive. 



ABANDONED TOWNS. 



But the effects of forest devastation on community development 

 are seen most clearly in the smaller towns in the regions primarily 

 adapted to timber production. Here deserted villages are signposts 

 that too often mark the trail of lumbering operations. As in the 

 mining regions of the West, towns spring up almost overnight, 

 flourish for a few 7 years until the adjacent timber is cut out, and then 

 sink rapidly to inactivity or even complete extinction. Unlike min- 

 ing towns, however, there is not the same necessity for their dis- 

 appearance. Timber is a renewable resource, which can be so handled 

 as to insure continuity of cut and therefore of industry. 



In the mountain counties of Pennsylvania, particularly in the 

 northern part of the State, one comes upon town after town that has 

 declined with the passing of the forest. Bun down and deserted 

 houses still standing give an idea of the towns' former prosperity. 



