62 



TIMBER DEPLETION, PRICES, EXPORTS, AND OWNERSHIP. 



tration which has taken place; but also that the process of con- 

 centration for timber holding as distinct from lumber manufac- 

 ture had been checked, as in Idaho. 



TIMBER OWNERSHIP IN CALIFORNIA. 



The timberlands of California illustrated, in 1910, the same 

 tendencies toward a partial concentration in enormous holdings 

 evident in Oregon and Washington. Nearly 75 per cent of the 

 privately owned timber in the State, or 178.2 billion feet, was in 

 39 holdings. The seven largest owners carried 100 billion feet 

 of stumpage ; and one owner, the Southern Pacific Railroad, had 

 acquired 35 billion feet through its Federal land grant. 



The commercial timber lands of California comprise two dis- 

 tinct belts, the redwood forests bordering the coast, and the 

 sugar and yellow-pine belt covering the eastern and northern 

 mountain ranges of the State. In the redwood region the prin- 

 cipal nonoperating owners are now 17 in number, with holdings 

 ranging from 200 million to 5 billion board feet of timber. 

 Eleven of these holdings comprise 1 billion feet or more ; and 

 in the aggregate they comprise 29,056,000,000 feet. The prin- 

 cipal operators in the same region are 13 in number, with tim- 

 ber holdings ranging from 240 million to 3 billion feet. Six of 

 these companies have holdings of 1 billion feet or more; and 

 the aggregate ownership of the 13 is almost 20 billion feet. A 

 large part of the redwood stumpage that can be operated most 

 economically is now controlled by operating companies, who also 

 largely control strategic operating sites from the standpoint of 

 coastwise or other shipments. There is still a large percentage 

 of redwood timber in the ownership of nonoperating companies, 

 but the general tendency since 1910 appears to have been away 

 from further concentration. The number and aggregate hold- 



ings of the group of companies controlling a billion feet or more, 

 for example, has decreased. 



The principal holding companies in the pine region of Cali- 

 fornia are eight in number. Aside from the enormous property 

 of the Southern Pacinc Railroad, these ownerships range from 

 600 million to 3 billion board feet. In addition, there are 14 

 large operating companies, one of which controls 15 billion 

 feet of stumpage, while the holdings of the rest range from 181 

 million to 2.8 billion board feet. All told, these operating com- 

 panies own over 29 billion feet of stumpage. There have been 

 several transfers of ownership since the investigation made by 

 the Bureau of Corporations in 1910 ; but no important change 

 as to the general concentration of timberlauds. The present 

 tendency in the California pine region is toward the operation 

 of timber areas and the liquidation of the investments which 

 they represent wherever the location of the property permits. 

 In line with this tendency, in California as in Oregon, a rapid 

 increase in the installation of sawmills and volume of lumber 

 output is to be expected. 



CHANGES IN TIMBER OWNERSHIP FROM 1913 TO 



1918. 



The accompanying table, No. 26, prepared by the Timber Sec- 

 tion of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, shows the increases and 

 decreases in timber ownership between 1913 and 1918 by 368 

 owners. These holdings are distributed by groups through 17 

 forest regions, representing practically all of the important 

 timber areas in the United States. The figures do not include 

 all of the large timber holdings in the regions represented, but 

 do, through showing what has happened in the case of a 

 sample group of large owners in each region, draw an excellent 

 picture of the tendencies in timber ownership the country over. 



TABLE 26. Depletion of timber reserves and net changes in timber ownership of large timber owners in the important forest regions of the 



United States. 



[Data compiled from "general Forest Industries Questionnaires" on file in the Timber Section, Bureau of Internal Revenue Bureau of Internal Revenue, May 22, 1920, 



David T. Mason, Chief, Timber Section.] 



