8 MISC. PUBLICATION 26, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
higher in proportion to what the average person has to spend. In 
most of the countries wood consumption has shown a marked increase 
during periods of industrial prosperity. Germany’s per capita con- 
sumption of saw timber increased 30 per cent in the 15 years pre- 
ceding the war, while Great Britain consumed more than three times 
as much per person in 1913 as was used 60 years before. 
in our own country per capita lumber consumption more than 
doubled between 1860 and 1906. Its decline from 1906 to 1922 was 
to some extent only temporary, and was due rather to a slowing down 
or deferring of expansion than to less need for lumber. The net 
increase in railroad mileage in the 12 years 1911-1922 was less than 
in any previous decade since 1830. ‘Also, the population increased 
more slowly during the last decade than ever before in the history 
of the country, and the increase in number of farms for the whole 
10-year period was less than the annual increase during the 20 years 
preceding. 
Besides this temporary slackening in requirements, the rising 
cost of timber, increasing at times more rapidly than the buying 
power of the American people, has led to a further decline in the 
rate of consumption. This has gradually resulted in lowered stand- 
ards of housing, with attendant overcrowding, and an increased 
cost of housing, which takes a considerably larger proportion of the 
average family’s income than was required 20 years ago. In 1900 
31.7 per cent of all familes owned their homes free of incumbrance. 
In 1910 the percentage had decreased to 30.8, and during the next 
10 years it fell three times as fast, to 28.2 per cent. Since 1922 the 
per capita consumption of sawed lumber has risen from a little over 
300 to approximately 325 board feet, giving further indication of the 
somewhat temporary nature of the rapid decline since 1906. The 
increase that may be expected in the buying power of the people, 
together with the economic pressure that will be exerted by such 
unsatisfactory conditions as that of lower housing standards, may 
be counted upon for some time to maintain our total demands for 
lumber and other wood products at a level above that of 1922. 
WE CAN NOT DEPEND ON OTHER COUNTRIES 
Heretofore, when one timber region was cut out, all that was 
necessary was to move on to a new one. Now, this is no longer 
possible without going outside the United States. Jt is true that 
there are extensive forests and large supplies of timber in Canada, 
Siberia, and the Tropics of both hemispheres. It is exceedingly 
doubtful, however, whether they will ever supply a considerable 
proportion of our requirements. 
Canada’s timber consumption is growing steadily; her eastern 
forests are in little or no better condition than our own, and those 
in the western Provinces are being drawn upon already to supply 
the needs of other parts of the British Empire. Timber export to 
the United States is more likely to decrease than to increase. 
Siberia’s forest resources, even if they are as extensive as has been 
estimated, can be developed only slowly, while her growing local 
needs may be expected to take a large share of the output. What- 
ever surplus there may be will lie so much closer to the populous, 
timber-poor countries of Asia that very little of it will ever reach 
