FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



279 



In 1898 the total cut of logs in the Adirondack forests amounted to 

 544,234,207 ft., of which 229,581,918 ft. were consumed in the pulp mills. 



A peculiar effect of the woodpulp industry is the rise in value of spruce 

 stumpage, which has increased beyond what the market value of the sawed lumber 

 will warrant. Spruce stumpage is now worth so much more for woodpulp than for 

 lumber that the sawmill men are unable to pay the price demanded for the standing 

 timber ; and unless there is some change in market conditions this species will not 

 enter so largely hereafter into building operations, its place being taken to a 

 great extent by hemlock or cheap pine. 



Volctme of ;^asiness. 



The lumber industry of New York attained its maximum development at some 

 time prior to 1865, when there were, according to the State census of that year, 

 3,963 sawmills. These included the little mills equipped with one saw only, none of 

 which cut over 100,000 ft. in a year, and which composed perhaps three-fourths of 

 the entire number. 



From the tenth U. S. census, 1880, it appears that there were then 2,822 mills 

 in New York, with an invested capital of $13,230,934, giving employment to 17,509 

 men, and paying out annually $2,162,972 in wages. The combined lumber product 

 of these mills amounted in 1880 to 1,148,220,000 ft., board measure, not including 

 lath, shingles, and staves. 



Within the next twenty years there was a great decrease in the production, the 

 timber supply having been exhausted with the exception of the Adirondack and 

 Catskill forests. There are not 150 mills in the State to-day with an annual output 

 of over 100,000 ft. The production is now confined almost wholly to the Adi- 

 rondack region, the mills which are stocked from there having sawed in 1899 the 

 following amounts : 



FEET B. M. 



Spruce, - - - - - - - -- - - 148,203,491 



Hemlock, .-..-.---- 46,545,772 



Pine, 33,132,807 



Hardwood, - - -- - - - - - - 24,296,554 



252,178,624 



Shingles, - - - - - - -- - - - 33,619,000 



Lath, -- 49,329,090 



