CONCENTRATION IN TIMBER OWNERSHIP, MANUFACTURE, AND MARKETING. 



CONCENTRATION OF TIMBER OWNERSHIP IN 1910. 



A thorough investigation of timber ownership in the Lake 

 States, the southern pine region, and the Pacific Northwest was 

 made by the Bureau of Corporations in 1910. At that time 

 these three great forest regions contained about 80 per cent of 

 all the stimding timber in the United States. The two most 

 striking facts reported by the Bureau of Corporations, follow- 

 ing its investigation, were the concentration of control of stand- 

 ing timber in comparatively few large holdings and the vast 

 scale upon which the speculative purchase and holding of tim- 

 ber in advance of its use had been conducted. Both of these 

 conditions were attributed directly to the public-land policy of 

 the United States. The Bureau of Corporations found that 48 

 per cent of the standing timber privately owned in these three 

 regions, or 839.7 billion feet, was held or controlled by 195 

 owners. Three large corporations held between them 238 bil- 

 lion feet, or 11 per cent of all the privately owned timber in the 

 United States. The concentration of standing timber in large 

 holdings ^^•as most fully developed in the Lake States and the 

 Pacific Northwest. 



The degree of concentration of standing timber in 1910 in the 

 States covered by the investigation of the Bureau of Corpora- 

 tions, and subsequent changes or tendencies in so far as it has 

 been possible to determine them, are summarized in the follow- 

 ing brief account of timber ownership in a number of the more 

 important forest regions : 



TIMBER OWNERSHIP IN THE NORTHEAST. 



The 1910 investigation did not cover this region. The only 

 timber holdings of large size in New England are located in its 

 northern softwood forests and have been consolidated primarily 

 to secure large supplies of pulp wood. Fifteen owners have 

 acquired something over 5i million acres in Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, and Vermont, or nearly one-fourth of the forest area of 

 these three States. These 15 owners undoubtedly control at 

 least half of the supply of pulp wood in New England. The 

 process of timberland concentration is still going on to a con- 

 siderable degree, especially in Maine, where the large properties 

 of one of the paper companies were acquired and assembled dur- 

 ing tlie past three years. In New Hampshire the United States 

 itself has acquired a comparatively large timber holding through 

 the purchase of over 400,000 acres in the White Mountains under 

 the Weeks law. 



The pulp-wood forests of New England are very largely held 

 on an operating rather than a speculative basis. The non- 

 operating owners in practically all cases are selling timber 

 to operating companies for current logging requirements, re- 

 taining the land. 



In New York 17 pulp and paper companies have aggregate 

 holdings of nearly 800,000 acres. The largest of these owner- 

 ships exceeds 200,000 acres, and the second in size exceeds 

 150,000 acres. Practically all of the softwood stumpage in New 

 York is very strongly held, and there is little tendency toward 

 further concentration at the present time. 



A significant fact in New York is that the State itself is the 

 largest owner of merchantable timber, having acquired 1,886,000 

 acres of forest land in the Adirondack and Catskill Preserves, 

 which contain 60 per cent of the pulp timber in the State. The 

 cutting of these lands is prohibited by the State constitution. 

 The situation in New York is thus in striking contrast to that 



in Maine, where almost the entire supply of pulp timber is in 

 private ownership. 



OWNERSHIP OF SOFTWOOD TIMBER IN THE SOUTH- 

 ERN STATES. 



The Bureau of Corporations reported in 1910 that 14 holders 

 controlled three-fifths of the cypress in Louisiana, and that 11 

 owners controlled one-half of the cypress in JPlorida. Each of 

 these 25 owners had acquired more than 250 million feet of 

 cypress stumpage. There has been comparatively little change 

 in the ownership of cypress land since 1910. The limited supply 

 and high value of this timber and the large investments re- 

 quired for operating plants tend to keep the stumpage in the 

 hands of relatively few owners. The enlargement of the ex- 

 isting cypress holdings is becoming more and more difficult, 

 and the total quantities of timber held by the groups of large 

 owners are diminishing as cutting progresses. 



The Bureau of Corporations reported that 29 holders in 1910 

 owned 22 per cent of the yellow-pine timber in the Southern 

 States, each of these owners having acquired over 2 billion 

 board feet. Sixty-seven owners held- 31 per cent of the south- 

 ern pine, but the ownership of 50 per cent was distributed 

 among 807 holdings. 



The concentration of southern pine in large holdings appears 

 to have practically stopped about 1909. The number of hold- 

 ing companies which are not operating is very limited, sales of 

 timber are very few, and practically all of the remaining stump- 

 age is definitely related to manufacturing plants. 



The southern pine belt well illustrates the increasing degree 

 of concentration of timber of high quality as the depletion of 

 forest resources continues. The South contains to-day approxi- 

 mately 139 billion feet of virgin pine, controlled by 5,401 saw- 

 mills. It is estimated that in- 10 years the remaining stand of 

 old-growth pine will be in the hands of 147 mills, and that in 

 20 years the 30-odd billion feet of virgin pine timber left will 

 be held by 45 mills. The number of mills alone does not indi- 

 cate the degree of concentration, since a number of corporations 

 control and operate several mills. 



The southern pine region also illustrates the replacement of 

 large sawmills by small operations, as the greater part of the 

 virgin stumpage is cut out and the industry passes over to the 

 cleaning up of odds and ends and the manufacture of second 

 growth. The number of small sawmills in the South is in- 

 creasing more rapidly than the number of large plants, which 

 are closing down. During 1919 from 800 to 1,000 small mills 

 were established in this region, a movement, of course, greatly 

 stimulated by the high lumber prices. 



OWNERSHIP OF HARDWOOD TIMBER. 



In 1910 the Bureau of Corporations found that timber owner- 

 ship wa.s less concentrated in the hardwood forests of the 

 South than in any other region investigated. The same is true 

 to-day. Hardwood forests lend themsehes to concentration 

 much less readily than coniferous timber. The number of 

 species in the usual stand is great. Manufacrture and market- 

 ing must be highly specialized, with diversified products de- 

 manded by a wide range of manufacturing industries and 

 other users. Costs of production run higher than in the case 

 of softwood forests. Hence the individual liardwood hoIJ- 

 ings have averaged much smaller and the average hardwood 

 mill cuts much less timber than in the case of softwoods. 



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