8 



TIMBER DEPLETION, PRICES, EXPORTS, AND OWNERSHIP. 



house built in Washington, D. O., for $4,771.60 in 1913 bids on 

 identical plans in May, 1920, total .$11,465.50. 



The lumber for a ready-cut, one-story, five-room house which 

 was listed at $883 in 1915 had been raised to $3,272 in April, 

 1920, a total increase of 270 per cent. Another company dealing 

 in ready-cut houses listed the material for a two-story seven- 

 room house at $1,995 in 1915 and now lists it at $5,606.90, an 

 increase of 181 per cent. 



Lumber prices alone do not tell the whole story. The person 

 who builds a house faces a series of difficulties in securing his 

 materials ; delays, many of which enter materially into increas- 

 ing costs; many of the grades desired, particularly the better 

 grades, can not be secured easily, sometimes not at all. Very 

 often the lumber secured is not properly dried and compara- 

 tively inferior and unsatisfactory construction results. This 

 situation, combined with delays in securing materials, labor 

 difficulties, etc., makes the construction of a dwelling house a 

 highly uncertain and speculative venture, takes it entirely out 

 of the reach of large numbers of people, and leads to a gradual 

 lowering of standards of living. Classes of industrial construc- 

 tion which can go forward regardless of uncertainties and 

 costs are able to pay lumber prices which the ordinary home 

 builder can not afford and increase the element of specula- 

 tion in the business of building houses for sale or rental. 



FARMING. 



Farms consume a very large aggregate of construction lum- 

 ber. Cheap high-grade building material aided powerfully in 

 the rapid development of farm lands. The Middle West, for 

 example, was built up largely with the output of white pine 

 lumber from the Lake States. In the eighties first quality white 

 pine lumber such as can now hardly be found in any market 

 in the United States commonly retailed throughout the Middle 

 West for $15 to $20 per thousand feet. In February, 1920, the 

 farmer in Kansas paid $70 per thousand for yellow pine framing 

 and about the same for Douglas fir. For No. 2 common lumber 

 suitable for temporary sheds and rough construction, either fir 

 or southern pine, he paid $72.50. B and better yellow pine 

 finishing lumber for house construction cost $147.50. Silo 

 stock cost $185. 



To ascertain the effect of present lumber prices and short- 

 ages upon the farming industry, questionnaires were sent to a 

 large number of agricultural county agents employed coopera- 

 tively by the Federal Government and the States in 33 States 

 lying east of the Rocky Mountains, and similar questionnaires 

 were also sent to a large number of retail lumber dealers sup- 

 plying country trade in seven Middle Western States. 



County agents throughout practically this entire territory re- 

 port a marked suspension in new construction and even in farm, 

 improvements and repairs requiring lumber. Out of some 250 

 counties in 32 States only about half a dozen agents reported 

 more building than in the past. New building is reported as 

 going on normally or in excess of normal in only 10 out of 

 every 100 counties, and this in regions of exceptional pros- 

 perity. In the Prairie States, from Illinois north and west, re- 

 pairs are reported by lumber dealers as deferred to an extent 

 of about 32 per cent, and new construction as somewhat less 

 than 50 per cent of normal. The average yearly amounts of 

 lumber sold per yard in farming districts of Nebraska and 

 Kansas were slightly more in 1919 than in 1917 or 1918, but be- 

 low the prewar average of 1910 to 1915. The widespread de- 

 ferment of building is almost uniformly laid to a combination 

 of high lumber prices and shortages of labor. 



Lumber dealers for several of the Middle Western States 

 report lumber stocks on hand as above normal. This is to 

 guard against delayed shipments, to be able to supply antici- 

 pated increase in demands, etc. Apparently throughout much 

 of the region covered supplies could usually be secured in the 



desired amount and quality if prices could be paid. Locally, 

 however, the pronounced changes in lumber distribution of the 

 past year have apparently made it difficult to secure desired 

 materials and qualities without delay. The difficulties were 

 greater with the better grades than with common lumber, and 

 they occurred even in the heart of the manufacturing district 

 in the South, because of excessive demands and competition for 

 this class of material. 



An attempt was made also to get at normal and probable 

 future lumber requirements of the farming industry. The esti- 

 mates of county agents indicate an average annual utilization 

 per farm unit of about 2,000 board feet. For practically the 

 entire region covered an increased future demand for lumber 

 is predicted in order to take care of improvements looking 

 toward better equipment and improved living conditions, provi- 

 sion for increasing population, and the development of new 

 farm units. This is important, in the face of falling lumber 

 production in all parts of the country except the extreme West. 



Eighty per cent of the county agents report that the ex- 

 tremely high prices of lumber are placing a handicap on farm 

 development and the production of crops and live stock. The 

 most serious effect reported appears to prevail throughout the 

 sparsely timbered regions, where in cases of emergency the 

 farmer is not able to secure supplies from the farm woodland. 

 Live-stock raising and dairying seem to be the hardest hit, 

 because of the large barn equipment and shelter necessary. It 

 is reported that heavy losses of implements and crops are re- 

 sulting from lack of proper storage facilities. In some of the 

 newer sections it is even reported that farmers who have not 

 yet reached a stable financial basis are leaving the land because 

 of the cost of new construction. It is reported from all parts 

 of the territory covered that present conditions are tending to 

 lower the standards of living and to make it more difficult to 

 hold on the farm the farmer's own children and desirable 

 classes of labor. 



THE RAILROADS. 



The normal demand for railroad ties is somewhere between 

 100 million and 125 million annually. In 1918, however, pur- 

 chases were slightly under 77,500,000 and in 10 months of 1919 

 were slightly over 84,500,000. During the war and the period of 

 Government supervision of the railroads extensions could not 

 be made, and improvements were necessarily confined to those 

 of an urgent character. Lumber purchases were therefore at 

 a minimum. Even under such a policy of retrenchment rail- 

 road purchases of sawed materials, excluding hewn railroad 

 ties, telephone poles, etc., aggregated approximately 4* billion 

 feet, or 14 per cent of the total lumber cut of the country for 

 1918. 



That there have been profound changes in the lumber dis- 

 tribution from different regions during the past year is shown 

 by the invasion of the Middle Western and Eastern States by 

 Douglas fir ties. These are regions which in the past have been 

 supplied with the standard oak tie cut Immediately along the 

 rights of way or with southern pine ties from the South. 

 During 1919 orders amounting to nearly 100,000,000 board feet 

 were placed for Douglas fir ties for eastern roads because of 

 the uncertainty of securing adequate supplies along their rights 

 of way and because of the excessive costs of local ties. Doug- 

 las fir ties are now said to be costing eastern roads from $1.75 

 to $2 each at their treating plants or on their rights of way. 

 In other words, oak ties cut within a few miles 4f the right 

 of way and bearing practically no charge in freight and south- 

 ern pine ties are now being replaced by fir ties hauled overland 

 across the continent or shipped through the Panama Canal. 



To supply their general lumber requirements the railroads 

 have obvious advantages in the purchase of lumber from mills 

 along their lines, and increases in prices have been far less 



