May, 1925] 



FARM PRODUCTION IN CHESHIRE COUNTY 



21 



TIMBER PRODUCTION. 



Market. 



New England is close to the center of timber consumption. Forty- 

 five per cent of the lumber in the United States in 1920 was consumed, and 

 only 15 per cent produced, in the northeastern states, i.e., east of Wiscon- 

 sin and Illinois. This area, therefore, has a distinct advantage in lower 

 transportation cost over more distant sections in the growth of timber. 



The centers of lumber production have been shifting rapidly. (See 

 Fig. 3.) New England in 1850 was supplying 54.8 per cent of the amount 

 used in the United States, but in 1920 it furnished only 6.5 per cent. 

 The percentage of the national supply coming from the Lake States 

 reached its peak in 1880, from the South in 1919, and now the Pacific 

 ( 'oast and Rocky Mountain states are sujiplying 3.5.6 per cent. 



BILLIONS 



or 



BOARD FEET 



40 



Fic. .'5.* 



LUMBER PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES 

 BY REGIONS, 1870-1920 



30 



20 







1880 1890 1900 



* U. S. D. A. Bulletin Xo. lUfl. 



1920 



Increase in transportation charges has followed this shift in production 

 to more distant areas. Since 1905 the average transportation cost of 

 luml)er received in southern Minnesota increased 262 per cent, and in 

 1919 this charge represented 72.8 per cent of the retail selling price of the 

 lumber.* Tliis charge is even higher to New England markets, and will 

 become greater, as a larger proportion of the supply comes from the 

 Pacific Coast states, which are more than twice as far as the southei'n- 

 producing areas. 



Transportation costs have been the most important factor in increasing 

 retail prices of lumber, but in the future we may also expect scarcity to 

 advance them. At the present time the forest resources of the country 



t U. S. D. A. Yearbook 1922. " Timber: Mine or Crop." 



