10 



the cost of the lumber used. Those who neglected to 

 reply to the mail request were visited and the desired 

 statistics were procured in nearly every instance. The 

 accompanying tables will show summaries of the result. 

 The total annual output of manufactured wood commodi- 

 ties in Florida ranks rather low compared with some of 

 the other Southern States, but high compared with many 

 of the Northern and Central States. The Southern 

 States which exceed Florida in total product are Louis- 

 iana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and North 

 Carolina. 



Florida is manufacturing its softwoods into flooring, 

 ceiling, siding, sash and mill products, but is not yet 

 doing much with its hardwoods. No States south of 

 North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas are active in 

 the way of manufacturing their hardwoods. Florida is 

 doing what other Gulf States are doing; that is, cutting 

 pine and cypress, and leaving the rest. These species 

 are most abundant, and under present conditions there 

 is more money in them than in the smaller and more 

 dispersed hardwoods; but the people of Florida should 

 not lose sight of the fact that they have a rare lot of 

 hardwoods and that there is a good market for them if 

 pains are taken to reach that market in the right Avay. 



More than 95 per cent of the wood now passing through 

 Florida's factories is pine and cypress. These species 

 are exploited at the expense of all others. While they 

 last, they will make the lumber business profitable, but 

 when they are gone, the wood-worker's attention will turn 

 to what is now being neglected — the hardwoods. 



Florida appears to be suffering more from forest flres 



