70 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



February 



Buffalo market has risen from $47 to 

 $91, or 94 per cent; that select cypress 

 on the New York market has risen 

 from $30.50 to $42.40, or 39 per cent; 

 that hemlock, Pennsylvania stock, at 

 New York, has risen from $11.40 to 

 $22.25, or 95 P er cent, and that accord- 

 ing to your price lists, "A" flat-grain 

 yellow pine flooring was quoted at 

 $16.50 in 1894, delivered on a 22-cent 

 rate, and at $29.50 in December, 1905. 

 delivered on a 23-cent rate, or a raise 

 of 77 per cent. Of course, I under- 

 stand that there are a number of fac- 

 tors entering into the case, and am not 

 overlooking the influence of the gen- 

 eral rise in the price level during the 

 past few years, the abundant crops. 



and the great building activity, but it 

 requires more than these things to ex- 

 plain why it was that your Committee 

 on Values issued six price lists in the 

 effort to keep up with the market last 

 year, and that there is little sagging in 

 the latest list during this winter. It is 

 entirely possible and even likely that 

 there will be temporary halts and even 

 depressions in prices of lumber, but 

 there is every reason to believe that the 

 upward course shown by the price- 

 curves for the last dozen years is but 

 the beginning of a general advance 

 which will continue until an equilib- 

 rium between the demand for wood 

 and the amount available for the year- 

 ly cut is reached on a far higher price 

 level than at present. 



A HISTORY OF THE LUMBER 

 INDUSTRY IN AMERICA 



The first volume just published is an exceedingly 

 valuable work for which all interested in the wise use 

 of our forests owe the author a debt of thanks 



BY 



TREADWELL CLEVELAND, JR. 



U. S. Forest Service. 



"THE publication of Mr. J. E. Defe- 

 baugh's "History of the Lumber 

 Industry in America" is an important 

 event in the world of forest interests. 

 This is the first book in its field, writ- 

 ten and compiled in a large, scholarly 

 way by one of the few authorities emi- 

 nently fitted for the task. And the 

 task has been an unusually difficult 

 one. The sources on which it is based 

 are scattered. Only indefatigable 

 pains and a persistent devotion to his 

 subject could have enabled the author 

 to accomplish it even indifferently. He 

 has accomplished it so well that, even 

 were his long activity as editor of The 

 American Lumberman to be forgot- 

 ten this volume would unquestionably 

 give his name a permanent place in 



the history of one of our largest in- 

 dustries. Though necessarily in large 

 part a compilation, the history is in a 

 true sense an original work, the well- 

 planned product of a practical and 

 philosophic mind. 



Perhaps the first point which favor- 

 ably impresses the reader is the histo- 

 rian's point of view. This proceeds 

 from a firm grasp of the relation of 

 economics to history and of the part 

 which the forest has played in the eco- 

 nomic progress of the world in general 

 and of the New World in particular. 

 What this means is well brought out 

 in the thoughtful preface. After em- 

 phasizing the suggestive fact that "in- 

 dustry and commerce have received in 

 the past but incidental recognition 



